Photographs by Kelly Davidson

History鈥檚 First Draft

We sit down with Heather Cox Richardson, the 皇冠官网 history professor whose smash newsletter听Letters from an American听has made her one of the country鈥檚 leading public intellectuals.

Three years ago, Heather Cox Richardson was in the middle of the kind of sparkling career that any academic would admire. The 皇冠官网 history professor had written a number of highly regarded books, was a regular contributor to respected publications such as the Washington Post, had cohosted an NPR podcast, and had amassed twenty thousand or so followers on Facebook who looked forward to her weekly essays about history, current events, and life itself.

Then, in 2019, something happened in Washington that would change the trajectory of Richardson鈥檚 career. The chair of the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the acting director of national intelligence demanding that, in accordance with the law, a whistleblower complaint be turned over to the committee. To Richardson, the letter marked the first time that a lawmaker had accused a member of the Trump administration of breaking the law. Recognizing the historical significance of the moment, Richardson dedicated one of her Facebook essays to it. Rather than assume her readers were already experts, however, she used her conversational writing style to provide context and help her audience understand the nuances of the issue. The response was astounding. So Richardson wrote again two days later. 鈥淭he floodgates just opened,鈥� she recalled. 鈥淎nd I鈥檝e written every night since then.鈥�

Those early essays formed the beginnings of Letters from an American, Richardson鈥檚 daily musings about the state of the nation. She continues to post her 1,200-word essays for free on Facebook, but hundreds of thousands of people also pay for subscriptions to them on the hit newsletter platform Substack, on which Richardson is one of the most successful authors. Her posts generate tens of thousands of comments. She was named one of USA Today鈥檚 2022 women of the year. And she was invited in February to travel to the White House to interview President Biden.

We sat down with Richardson to discuss her sudden鈥攁nd quite unexpected鈥攔ise to media stardom, the state of the country, and how the job of historians will change in the future.听

There鈥檚 much more to this conversation. To listen to the entire听Boston College Magazine听辫辞诲肠补蝉迟,听.

How did Letters from an American get its start?
I had a Facebook page of about twenty-two thousand people in 2019, and I posted an essay on it about once a week鈥攕ometimes about history, sometimes about life, whatever, just because I like to write. And I had not written in 2019 since July 18 and my readers were starting to be nervous about me because I had been listed on a professor 鈥渨atch list,鈥� and people like me get hate mail. So I started to get emails from people saying, 鈥淎re you okay? Has something happened?鈥� But actually, I was just really busy and didn鈥檛 have time to sit down and write an essay. One of the things I was doing was moving to a new place. So I was painting my house before I moved, and I got stung by a yellow jacket. Now, I鈥檓 allergic to yellow jackets, and I did not have my EpiPen. I was supposed to come back to Boston but I didn鈥檛 dare get in a car until I knew that I was not going to have a bad reaction to that sting. So I thought I might as well write. So this again was 2019, just after Representative Adam Schiff, who is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, had written a scathing letter to the acting director of National Intelligence saying, We know there鈥檚 been a whistleblower who has said something. And by law you must give us that complaint, and you have not done so. So we have to assume that there鈥檚 somebody big 迟丑补迟鈥檚 referred to in this whistleblower鈥檚 complaint and you鈥檝e got to hand it over. This was the first time in all the years of the Trump administration that a member of the legislative branch had explicitly accused a member of the executive branch of breaking a law. And so I thought, well, I might as well write about where we are in American history right now. So I wrote up this quick thing for Facebook saying, 鈥淭his is what鈥檚 happened, there鈥檚 been this whistleblower complaint.鈥�

What kind of a reaction did you get to that essay?
It was very different than in the past. All of a sudden, the transoms opened and people were writing in, asking all kinds of questions: Who is the DNI? Who is Adam Schiff? What is going on? That post was on September 15. I wrote again on September 17. Again, the floodgates just opened. And I鈥檝e written every night since then. What I鈥檓 doing is responding to people鈥檚 questions about this country. And I think the magic of it is not me. It鈥檚 that I鈥檓 a teacher, and a translator for people asking questions. And a lot of what I do is simply say, 鈥淥kay, here鈥檚 what the Department of Justice is, and here鈥檚 what a congressional committee is, and here鈥檚 the difference. And here are the powers that they have. And here鈥檚 what they鈥檙e trying to do.鈥� All those things that many people pretend they know and they don鈥檛 actually know. And 迟丑补迟鈥檚 always been the key to my professional career, saying, 鈥淲ait, I don鈥檛 understand that. What are you talking about? Let鈥檚 figure out what exactly you mean.鈥�

Your Facebook audience has exploded since then.听
It鈥檚 about 1.5 million now, and it happened really quickly. I remember reaching out to my Dean within three weeks or