What if the central event of U.S. history has been fundamentally misunderstood? What if the ethos of the Confederacy didn’t just survive the Civil War, but actually came to dominate American politics and culture, right up to the present day?

That’s the radical thesis proposed by Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson in her new book, "How The South Won The Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, And The Continuing Fight For The Soul Of America."

She joins Peter Kadzis and Adam Reilly to talk it over — but first, Kadzis and Reilly respond to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s plan to reopen the state in the coming weeks, as this round of the COVID crisis begins to ebb.