Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of 19th century American history at Boston College and co-host of NPR’s history podcast “Freak Out and Carry On.” Richardson’s most recent book, “How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America” (Oxford University), investigates an essential American paradox: the contradictory notions of equality and subjugation. She explores how ideologies of the South flourished in the West after the Civil War and how cultural symbols at the heart of America, such as the yeoman farmer, transformed into new icons like the individualist cowboy.
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