Richardson’s lecture has the same title as her newest book, scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press in 2019: “How the South Won the Civil War: The Significance of the West in American History.” According to Richardson, the American Civil War should have destroyed forever the Confederacy’s idea that society worked best when a few wealthy men controlled the economy and directed the lives of workers, but, due to an unusual quirk of history, Westward expansion nurtured and preserved its ideology.
Richardson holds that as more settlers moved across the Mississippi River, and the West developed its own identity, separate from that of the East or the South, the idea lived on that a few wealthy white men should oversee the economy and people of color. She contends that in the late 20th century, politicians embracing this ideology became ascendant and have shaped American politics ever since.
Richardson is a professor of history at Boston College. She earned her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in history at Harvard University. She is the award-winning author of several books, including To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party; The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1864-1901, and The Greatest Nation on Earth: Republican Economic Policies During the Civil War. She is also a national commentator on American political history and the Republican Party.
“Dr. Richardson offers an interesting perspective on historical issues that continue to impact our current political discourse,” said Patricia Proctor, director of the Simon Perry Center for Constitutional Democracy, which sponsors the lecture series with funding from the West Virginia Humanities Council.
“One of the great things about this lecture series is that it offers a diversity of views from notable scholars about the issues with which we grapple,” said Proctor. “Dr. Richardson has spent her career studying and writing about 19th Century American history surrounding the Civil War and the American West, and is widely recognized for the excellence of her work. I think her lecture will offer an interesting perspective.”
Later in April will be the final Amicus Curiae lecture of the semester. It is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Brad. D. Smith Foundation Hall and will feature Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein. They will give a presentation entitled, “The Problem of Democracy,” reflecting on President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams, their philosophies and how they are relevant today.