Tags
American Constitution, Free Newsletter, Heather Cox Richardson, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from America, Letters from an American Farmer, Newsletter, Professor of American History
Thanks to Hugh Riddleberger’s recommendation in December, I signed up for and began to read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American which arrives in a daily email (actually it usually seems to arrive well after I’ve gone to sleep).
Richardson is a history professor at Boston College has also taught at MIT & U of Mass, and is the author of a number of books, her most recent being How the South Won the Civil War.
It is the most informative single piece of reporting on the daily political news that I have found. She is able to put together day after day not just what is happening in our country but is able to put it in context.
During the final month and a half of the Trump administration, it was without a doubt the most comprehensive and important account of what occurred each day that I read.
It will no doubt not appeal to all readers of the MillersTime website, but for me, it is the first thing I read each morning, after having read a variety of news sources before going to sleep each night. And I always find insights that I had not discovered elsewhere.
In her own words, Heather Cox Richardson writes about her Newsletter:
About Letters from an American
Historians are fond of saying that the past doesn’t repeat itself; it rhymes.
To understand the present, we have to understand how we got here.
That’s where this newsletter comes in.
I’m a professor of American history. This is a chronicle of today’s political landscape, but because you can’t get a grip on today’s politics without an outline of America’s Constitution, and laws, and the economy, and social customs, this newsletter explores what it means, and what it has meant, to be an American.
These were the same questions a famous observer asked in a book of letters he published in 1782, the year before the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War.
Hector St. John de Crevecoeur called his book “Letters from an American Farmer.”
Like I say, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure rhymes.
If you want to check out a few of her daily writings, you can get access to her recent and past daily emails here.
But what about the headline of this blog post?
Letters from an American is free for simply adding your email address to her site. But I believe it is worth paying for, contributing to her for the hard work she does each day. As the sources for news and daily information are both shrinking (fewer local newspapers for example) and exploding (particularly through social media), I am pleased to support her work even though I am not at present using any of the added features the $50 a year subscription offers me.
I believe you can start receiving her daily emails by going here, where you have several options, including free access, $5 a month, or $50 year. The latter two options have added features to the daily emails.
Richardson has promised: Letters from an American will always be free, but we also have a community behind a paywall to expand on the ideas in the Letters without the help of trolls. If you’d like to join us for discussion and more thoughts from me, you’re most welcome. It’s $5 a month.
Hugh Riddleberger said:
Thank you, Richard for this post…I can’t remember who first recommended I read Heather…though it was probably my wife. We too “subscribe” to her email.
As I mentioned to you, another reason I admire her is she lives in a small town on the Maine coast. Her partner is a lobsterman. Living in these parts as an “away” resident, Maine folks are reserved and can appear unwilling to accept an “away” person’s point of view. But, it is credit to Heather she is accepted by true Mainers…and to me that speaks volumes to her character.
Anon-2 said:
I read her frequently. I’ve found her to be a very biased source, so if you consider yourself a left winger, you’ll enjoy the confirmation bias.
Land Wayland said:
I have been reading her essay-of-the-day for about a month and it is the first thing I dig into when I join the morning. I consider myself to be a middle winger and the only bias I see is toward decent, honest, realistic and thoughtful commentary. Quite an eclectic combination and one that has been sorely missing from the Tweety blurbs being fired ten times a day from the verbal pistol worn on the hip of XP45.
Anon-2 said:
Yes…clearly a ‘middle winger’, thank you for making my point about confirmation bias.
Richard Margolies said:
Is a point of view bias?
Anon-2 said:
Of course. That’s the point. We love to read people who share our POV. I try to fight that, personally….which is why I read her lengthy streams of conscious.
The Duke of Brooklyn said:
I love her…..read her often!
I’m a “lefty” – or the newest – “a socialist”….
Years ago, I was “commie”….
Before that, when I voted for Congress woman Connie Morella and US senator Mac Matthias —
I was called “a right-winger” or a Republican….
I wonder what happened?
Still like her writings and has much to
Offer us….
Anon-2 said:
One would need to know only one thing to understand. Why are Fairfax, Loudon and Montgomery counties among the wealthiest in the world? One would think that it would be Silicon Valley or the Permain Basin. This past election was the American people vs. the swamp, and the swamp creatures you have supported. The swamp won….the candidate of big tech, big pharma, big media, China, War, Inc., and Hollywood came out on top. Congrats!
Rob Higdon said:
Knowing this, you may find this site interesting. I read it daily. https://electoral-vote.com/
Similarly, it is the political news of the day from the viewpoint of a political history professor.
Lydia Slaby said:
Thank you! I started reading Heather in early December after a friend recommended her. I find her thoughtful, empathetic, and grounded in the facts of who we are as a country and how we got here. I particularly appreciate her long-view and how events of the past built and swirled eventually creating (in some respects) a most-obvious present. For me, she helps translate the heart-breaking divisiveness into a “why,” which therefore has a “how,” which points towards a difficult but not unattainable solution. In short, our shadow has been with us since Columbus discovered Turtle Island, and it’s about time that we did something about it.