Civic Behavior From Yesterday—for Today

Join former Oregon Teacher of the Year Lois MacMillan for a three-part series exploring classical virtues and civic responsibilities. Drawing from Jeffrey Rosen’s The Pursuit of Happiness and Richard Haas’ The Bill of Obligations, participants will examine values like temperance, humility, and justice, and the common good. Open to teens and adults, this program blends history and civic engagement to inspire personal and community well-being.

This program is offered at no charge and open to the public. A library card is not needed to participate.

Lois serves on the National Council of History Education and has participated in fellowships with Monticello, Ford’s Theatre, James Madison, and the Pulitzer Center.

Schedule:
Temperance, Humility, Sincerity | Tuesday, January 7 | 5:30–7 pm | Grants Pass branch
Industry, Resolution, Moderation | Tuesday, January 14 | 5:30–7 pm | Grants Pass branch
Tranquility, Silence, Justice | Tuesday, January 21 | 5:30–7 pm | Grants Pass branch

Recommended reading

January 7 Books in the Presentation:

• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
• The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
• The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence by David Waldstreicher
• The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• John Adams by David McCullough
• Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton

January 14 Books in the Presentation:

• 1776 by David McCullough
• A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic by Francis Cogliano
• Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 by Ricardo Herrera
• Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fisher
• Washington at the Plow by Bruce Ragsdale
• Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention by Mary Sarah Bilder
• March Book One, Two, and Three Graphic Novels by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
• Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim
• His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham
• Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America by John Lewis

January 21 Books in the Presentation:

• James Traub’s John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit
• Marcus Rediker’s The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom
• Caleb Bingham’s The Columbian Orator
• Richard Carwardine’s Lincoln’s Sense of Humor
• John Stauffer’s Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
• David Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
• James Oakes’ The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics
• James Oakes’ Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution
• John Stauffer’s Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American
• Diane McWhorter’s Carry Me Home Birmingham Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
• Glenn Eskew’s But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle
• Melvin Urofsky’s Louis D. Brandeis: A Life
• Jeffrey Rosen’s Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet
• Jeffrey Rosen’s Conversations with RGB: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law