--- description: Find out why Heather Cox Richardson is one of the 100 most influential digital voices of 2025. title: Heather Cox Richardson: TIME100 Creators 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0553a3ee2caf74e7/6998c80f93610c8674c2fc8e/TIME100-Creators-2025-Heather-Cox-Richards-001.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jul 09, 2025 # Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/) ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer  Erin Clark—The Boston Globe/Getty Images Heather Cox Richardson is one of the most popular historians in the U.S., boasting more than 3.2 million [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/ "undefined") followers and 2.5 million [Substack](https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289596/substack/ "undefined") subscribers, making her the most-subscribed individual creator on that platform. In “Letters from an American,” the newsletter she began writing in 2019,the 62-year-old analyzes current events by connecting them to broader [historical](https://time.com/5569221/biggest-american-political-scandals/ "undefined") trends and patterns in American history. She also regularly hosts evening live chats on Facebook, taking reader questions in a new version of the nightly news. In the realm of traditional media, Richardson is the author of seven books, including _To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party_, _How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America_, and _Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America_—she’s well-positioned to cover a divided United States. When she’s not writing, she’s a professor at Boston College, teaching 19th-century American history to undergraduate and graduate students. At the core of Richardson’s work is ensuring people have an understanding of past mistakes, in hopes the nation can avoid repeating them _Data and insights powered by #paid_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299128/heather-cox-richardson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299128/heather-cox-richardson/"},"headline":"Heather Cox Richardson","datePublished":"2025-07-09T11:22:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:50:33.073Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299128/heather-cox-richardson/","keywords":["Social Media","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0553a3ee2caf74e7/6998c80f93610c8674c2fc8e/TIME100-Creators-2025-Heather-Cox-Richards-001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"creator":"Olivia B. Waxman","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0553a3ee2caf74e7/6998c80f93610c8674c2fc8e/TIME100-Creators-2025-Heather-Cox-Richards-001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299128/heather-cox-richardson/","name":"Heather Cox Richardson"}}]}] ```