The program is
free but only 25 copies of each of the three books to be used in the series are
available. Participants are asked to commit to attending all sessions in the
series. Participants will also need a current Cooperative Information Network
library card.
The five
two-hour book discussions are scheduled for five Thursday evenings, 7 p.m. to 9
p.m., on the following dates: Nov. 8, 15, 29, Dec. 13, and 20 in the library
Community Room at 702 E. Front Ave.
To sign up for
the series contact David Townsend, Library Communication Coordinator, at
208-769-2315 Ext. 426 or by e-mail at dtownsend@cdalibrary.org.
“Making Sense of the Civil War,” is a program
developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library
Association to give a glimpse of the vast sweep and profound breadth of
Americans’ war among and against themselves.
The series is organized as a series of “conversations” that are meant to
be considered together.
“Each
conversation is itself arranged as an unfolding story, moving forward in time,”
said Rick Ardinger, Executive Director of the Idaho Humanities Council. “Some
of the readings were written by eye-witnesses, some written for perhaps only
one other person to read, while others were well researched after the passage
of time and imagined for vast audiences. And 150 years after the defining war
in our nation’s history, Americans are still discovering its meanings.”
The discussion
series is based on the readings of three books:
¢ “March,” by
Geraldine Brooks, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel which tells its
story through the voices of characters from another novel, “Little Women,” by
Louisa May Alcott.
¢ “America’s
War,” edited by historian Edward L. Ayers, is mostly a collection of writings
by people who had to decide for themselves before and during the war where
justice, honor, duty, and loyalty lay, including selections written by
Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, and many
others.
¢ “Crossroads of
Freedom: Antietam,” by historian James McPherson, explores the battle in the
fall of 1862 that changed the course of the Civil War.
Scholars who
will lecture and facilitate discussions so far include University of Idaho
History Professor and Dean of Letters Arts and Social Sciences Dr. Katherine
Aiken, North Idaho College History Professor James Jewell, and Boise State
University Andrus Center for Public Policy Director Dr. David Adler.
Books will be
distributed beginning Oct. 8.
For more
information about the series, contact Townsend at 208-769-2315 Ext. 426.
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