Tuesday, we’re putting the Republican Party’s recent electoral success into some historical perspective. From the progressive presidency of Abraham Lincoln to the ascendance of Reagan-era conservatism, the Grand Old Party has gone through a lot of change in the past 150 years. Historian Heather Cox Richardson says the GOP, now an advocate for smaller federal government, actually has a robust record of government activism. Richardson joins us to explore the Republicans’ ideological evolution.
Heather Cox Richardson is professor of history at Boston College. She is the author of four books, including Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre and West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War. Her new book is called To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party [Amazon|Indiebound].
