Heather Cox Richardson with Rebecca Solnit / Democracy Awakening

Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters present an evening with Heather Cox Richardson for her book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, in conversation with Rebecca Solnit on October 4, 2023.
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- ABOUT THE AUTHORS -
Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College. She has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent to the history of the Republican Party through the Trump administration. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. She is the cohost of the Vox podcast, Now & Then.
Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and urban history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and catastrophe. Her books include Orwell’s Roses; Recollections of My Nonexistence; Hope in the Dark; Men Explain Things to Me; A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster; and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she writes regularly for the Guardian, serves on the board of the climate group Oil Change International, and recently launched the climate project Not Too Late (nottoolateclimate.com).
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[@rebeccahelen502]

Brilliant historian and teacher. Cannot start my day without poring over her newsletter with my morning coffee! She inspires the thinking American who knows and cherishes OUR DEMOCRACY. Thank you so very much HCR.

[@simonebye6771]

Not just Americans either. I’m Australian and her letters drop in the afternoon here, and I look forward to the FB live politics chat each week too! I’ve been going back and watching her FB History of America videos too 😊

[@J.M.-nb4gw]

Yes I love her writing but wish it was available in an audio format. I'm a very hard-working nurse at a large Urban hospital in the US Midwest and I just don't have the time or energy to sit down and read her lengthy articles every day

[@simonebye6771]

@@J.M.-nb4gw there must be an app for that surely? I’ve thought the same about many Substack articles…if only I could have someone read them to me! I wonder if I cut and paste them into ChatGPT and asked me to read it? Hmm

[@kathleenconway5774]

I didn't think it possible, but I love her more than ever. What a privilege to spend an evening with her. Thank you, HCR and RS, and thanks to Berkeley Arts and Letters for sharing this experience with us.

[@TheGuinever]

There should be a Rational Party! These ladies could head it up!

[@floatinglotuswomenswellness]

Two of the brightest, most accomplished, and honest people writing in these turbulent times. I am in awe of their talents and grateful for the opportunity to read them both. Thank you to Booksmith and all who made this possible, and to the brilliant women who made it so memorable.

[@tomwirt319]

Lets see, Heather, Cassidy , things are looking up!

[@pauladufour7594]

HCR is the best. Democracy Awakening is a must-read.

[@SandiTink]

“Doing what the media fails to do.” Yes! Absolutely! And not just the media but the schools. Too many people think that the past has nothing to do with today, that it contains no lessons from which we can learn. They are so wrong, and their folly, if you will, affects us all today. We ignore the past at our peril.

[@rhondah1587]

Very true. You can't know where you are going unless you know where you have been. Our framers looked back at the history they knew and drew from it to create the first secular nation in the history of human civilization. They didn't get everything just right, but they had the foresight to make the Constitution amendable.

[@malonesinclaire9201]

Brilliant speaker. I been bless to find her through Pod Save America and l am Canadian who is very concerned about America’s demise. We are her neighbour and Trump and Banner and their crew have infected our country. I am so angry it shocks me.

[@jcbjcb2]

Harper preceded...

[@dwaynehendricks7842]

I just discovered her through Pod Save America, thank you, and will continue following!

[@lizparker8431]

“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. Thomas Jefferson

[@Historian212]

Heather isn’t a journalist and doesn’t call herself one, the NY Times notwithstanding. Heather’s a proud historian - the training is different, as well as the professional path. The Times is mistaken to label anyone who publishes articles and Op-eds a journalist. Just as not everyone who writes about the past is a professional historian.

[@ceceliabockenstedt786]

Heather, I was there when you wrote about the whistleblower complaint, and I even know the name of the whistleblower (thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman) and so many others. I've fallen off a LITTLE, but I reposted your daily recounting on facebook every day for 3 years or more and I've told countless people about your Letters, their reliability in so many senses, and how sanity-supporting they are. Listening to you tonight, I'm thinking about that Hamilton lyric, "why do you write like you're running out of time..." Your drive to write is mind-blowing, but I can see that when one sees what you do, it is compelling to capture it in the moment. You and Hamilton, at such a turning points in our country's history. It must be quite surreal to be so conscious of it.

[@gailleopold4163]

“It’s about us…” Yay Heather!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@suedonn7996]

Thank you both for the roles you play in defending our democratic principles.

[@sfong718]

Wonderful fun inspiring interview from two legends of journalism!! ❤❤❤

[@IExpectedBSJustNotThisMuchBS]

I saw the rise of fascism too… there were threads working their way through the culture for decades. At one point, it would take a long time for crazy to migrate from the fringes to the center, and now it’s a blink of an eye for the right.

[@maryannpercy2879]

thank you Rebecca for calling out the urgency of the current moment for the more-than-human world ! 43:53 !!!

[@simonebye6771]

Thank you to both historians. Watched from Australia…great conversation

[@ayleneasp8933]

I read your beautiful book: Orwell’s Roses! Wonderful Ms Solnit.

[@harriettejensen479]

HCR makes me wish that the reporters at newspapers and on TV were required to have at least a history minor so that we wouldn't get spoonfed bits of information that really have no relevance to the larger picture of what goes on in the world.....that, and they had to learn how to tell the diference between spin and reality.

[@louisefrazier1302]

So good! Thank you!

[@kathyfoley2364]

Loving the learning, thank you❤

[@sandicampbell3252]

I can't say enough good about this interview!

[@eonarts]

So good! I was sorry I didn’t go (not that there were tickets available!

[@scofah]

History, politics, law, punishments, and the shape of the judiciary is all about *election winners*. So please go to your county's Democratic Party headquarters and offer your time, talent, treasure, encouragement, friendship, enthusiasm, energy, and support to help Democrats win elections. A lot of important races are winner take all (governors, US Senate, state legislatures, and local races, and judges). So don't let gerrymandering or voter suppression stop anyone from participating in casting a vote.

[@captainramom3367]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@clearfield2009]

14th amendment, section 3 prohibits any elected official from holding office if they have committed insurrection or given aid to anyone who has. How is Jordan still in office?

[@sharpkmcm]

I think Pleasant’s trees are on Octavia between Bush and Sutter

[@frankgrant4784]

Does Rebecca Solnit ever talk in this interview?

[@andrewanderson6121]

If you bothered to actually watch it you'd know that, yes, she did talk and revealed that she knows what Heather writes and helps to make it clear. Of course you won't read my comment.

[@nancyreich5422]

Ms. Solnit is acting as moderator for HCR, who is on tour promoting her latest book. The moderator's job is to ask questions.

[@tomwirt319]

So might the second house vote be a prrecursor for the next presidential election.

[@caussin1]

Great chat but why are these to people not in chairs that face each other a bit? I looks very awkward.

[@tomwirt319]

Since HCR had nothing to do, lets send our President into the worlds hottest hot zones.

[@clearfield2009]

Trump is slurring his speech and keeps vomiting old soundbites, “Barack HUSSEIN Obama” is what he keeps chanting, sometimes from out of the blue.

[@judymiles7186]

I've tried unsuccessfully to unsubscribe to her newsletter too many times to count. It's nothing personal, however, it's insulting to not have my simple request granted.

[@vivalaleta]

Intellectual neoliberal.

[@theoldcountry2031]

Terrible interview of an amazing figure.

[@put-on]

Holy smokes! This is so wrong on so many levels. I almost turned this off when the announcer's introduction spoke of the NYT glorification of this particular author. An NYT endorsement almost seems like more of a condemnation or maybe it should be considered the kiss of death. The worst thing about these two, and everyone in the receptive audience, is their own perpetuation of the status quo through these rose-colored lenses. What will never be covered in these types of "liberal" conversations is the seething undercurrent throughout this country that everything is really hopeless. People supported Trump because they believed he would burn it all down and start over. By no means am I supporting the Trump movement or the chief scoundrel himself. I live in a small town outside of a larger metropolitan area where people all around me live from crisis to crisis. Pin cushions? Art? Literature? Daring? People out here are always desperate all the time. It's not a matter of "sitting back." It's a matter of using every ounce of one's energy struggling to survive. This is what it's like living under barbarism.

[@LCamp-cr7fs]

The people you are describing have the time to blame anyone but the real culprits. They rage against black/brown people, transgendered use of bathrooms, etc. Never do they ask themselves why they lost their job when the big corporate employer disassembled the factory and shipped it overseas. When they purchase anything, they never ask themselves how it affects their local economy and their own wellbeing. They blame government while taking every handout available. I know, I live in such an area.

[@jcbjcb2]

C**ks are sadomasochist.

[@dreimalnein22]

The diversity-rainbow flag makes this record so dated. In some decades you will be exactly able to tell in what short timeframe of [a cult not yet recognized by the whole secular society] this conversation has had taken place in. I mean, it also looks hanging there like a religious symbol and the streets sooo full with these triangle stained rainbows remind me of streets full of flags in time of totalitarian regimes in the 20th century.

[@linguaphile42]

This event took place in the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, CA. Looks like they are wanting to be inclusive and welcoming of people who have been marginalized throughout history. Seems like a perfect marker for a talk about history and present times.

[@dreimalnein22]

@@linguaphile42 the trans stuff didn't even exist in medium past history, as it doesn't exist in most other cultures. And referring to the religious aspects, the very most transgender operations were performed for the longest time in the absolutely homophobic Iranian regime and a statistically significant higher number of classical homosexual transsexuals than to be expected in proportion of the population size were raised in Christian communities compared to secular cohorts and other groups in society. ...could inherent homophobia in these societies play a role in making people seek relief in being trans? Trans and homosexuality should not run under the same flag. Transing the gay away is what happens. Beside the AGPs lobbying for all that. Do you know the term Autogynephilia? Trans is not one thing but 3. We shall not allow AGPs in female only spaces. The third group are children who even if they are straight not wanna have their body develop before they find out the benefits of their sexuality and interpersonal real life attraction; some detransitioners also say they just didn't want to be in the white oppressor class... There is no evidence for a gendered soul. Like for the Christian concept of a soul. But the Christian do not need to mutuale bodies for a brief idea the soul shows up. Whilst the gender soul is fluid. Whats done is done, bodies get mutilated in the name of it.

[@dreimalnein22]

​@@linguaphile42I hope you see I would be all up for and happy to see a regular old style rainbow flag! Without the triangle.

[@melo-muse]

@@dreimalnein22 I love how you think this comment makes you seem less prejudiced 😄 It's amazing to me, that there's an entire video about democracy and equality, and all you can focus on is PART of a flag in the background. Not only is this ridiculous, but it's full of inaccuracy and misinformation. I do believe you can learn more about transgender people and their place in cultures all over the world. I believe you can develop a more nuanced understanding, and I hope you do.

[@melissawhitaker2578]

😮

[@StingLikePepperPepper]

gross flag

[@marilynngray-raine7581]

Inclusive ❤!

[@teresaemery2293]

​@@marilynngray-raine7581 yup, nothing wrong with that! Why put your life's energy *against* something instead of first investing in what you DO believe in?? I would much rather work in alignment, and grow that positive foundation rather than rile up someone's base, spewing vitriole against fellow humans while seeking approval or clicks that further try to push us away from one another...

[@dreimalnein22]

​​​@@teresaemery2293but be aware enoug to know you are speaking from a religious belief standpoint and whilst others can also be good people with good intentions while they / we / majority do not need to believe in an indeterminable gender soul or the concept of all-encompassing systemic disadvantages by skin color. Like the Christians must be aware some / we / majority do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the trinity of god and yet we all are people with good intentions. All I just said are religious beliefs without evidence in reality. You can have gender studies and race studies and theological universities all you want. But keep all of them financed by their self aware faith congregations and not the general public. And so its like the bookstore adapted a religion. And thats sad from our perspective for the bookstore whilst some believers think it's great!

[@dreimalnein22]

​@@teresaemery2293this flag pushes also people away from one another! You might interpret it differently? Like any religious person experiences their faith and its symbols as uniting and beautiful. There can be an outside perspective that feels the exclusions and contradictions within a for many really peaceful and uniting faith.

[@teresaemery2293]

@@dreimalnein22 I look at this particular flag as a beacon that says “you are not alone” rather than an in-your-face declaration against those whose religions dictate they must actively rail against LGBTQ folks. Suicide, murder and other physical harm to these folks is real, and I fail to see how a flag is an overt threat or intentional insult to any person the flag doesn’t represent

[@J.M.-nb4gw]

HCR is excellent but since she doesn't do video or audio podcast it's a relatively small number of people who actually take the time to read her insightful articles