BRI Summer Reading List

0:02 [Music] the Allis Network tells the parallel stories of two brave young women during World War one and World War two one of these women is looking for her cousin who vanished in nazi-occupied France during World War two the other has joined the fight against Germany as a spy during world war one how do these

0:25 two stories intertwine what secrets will be revealed a New York Times in USA Today bestseller I read all 560 pages in three days as cliche as it sounds you will laugh you will cry and I can’t wait to hear what you think this is the ultimate story of BR I’s values justice and perseverance

0:47 1968 got more than its fair share of history the Tet Offensive worldwide student unrest the tragic assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King jr. it also saw three astronauts finally make it into orbit around the moon on the mission of Apollo 8 that same year will and Ariel Durant put

1:08 out a small book called the lessons of history it goes with a shelf full of books they had just taken 50 years to write spanning five thousand years of history of civilization it’s a book I found about 15 years ago and keep coming back to because it has been such a great launchpad for historical learning and

1:28 journeys for me the Durant’s put essays in this book on religion and history morals and history history and government history and socialism biology and history they start the book with a preface chapter that they call hesitations which gives you a sense that this book isn’t about conclusions it really is about

1:48 exploration and they wrap it with a chapter entitled his progress real their final page isn’t so much a conclusion as it is a preface and it contains this great little statement that gives you a sense for what the rest of the book contains to those of us they write who

2:09 study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s always and crimes but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative Souls the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors it becomes a celestial City a spacious country of the mind wherein a thousand saints statesmen

2:30 inventors scientists poets artists musicians lovers and philosophers still live and speak teach and carve and sing coming out of 1968 that’s quite a statement coming out of this book it’s a great invitation to explore one that I

2:52 hope you’ll pursue my name is Kirk Higgins at the book I recommend you check out this summer is what happen and Walker how book looks at American history between 1815 and 1848 and how the nation was transformed by a growing economy by political debates the period and by a second religious Great

3:12 Awakening throughout the book the characters in it are grappling with what this expanding economy means what this growth means what growing industrialization means new technologies the title itself what hath God wrought is a part of that technological expression it was the first telegram sent by say no Morse was what hath God

3:33 wrought didn’t walk at how investigates that and many other questions that came up during the period from debate to the institution of slavery to Indian Removal and forced migration to the same things of the United States all of it are encompassed in here and though the book is long nearly eight hundred and subpages it’s a really engaging there that’s really exciting to read and

3:53 definitely recommend to check it out so I hope you read it this summer hi I’m wearing a tie and glasses so you can trust my opinion on these two books you are not so smart and you are now less dumb by David McRaney you may be familiar with the blog these books are

4:14 based on five David McRaney which are psychology sociology and logic topics that can be very helpful not only for yourself but also your classroom they’re taken from psychological study and everyday life and experiences to question how we can better understand how our mind understands how the world

4:35 works the idea behind the books is if we can better deal with things like cognitive biases heuristics and logical fallacies once we understand them we can deal with them better you may be familiar with some of the cognitive biases contained in these books such as confirmation bias where we tend to pay

4:56 attention to things that confirm our preconceived notions and ignore the things that challenge them or heuristics like the availability heuristic which we think commonplace things because we’ve experienced them at least once and tend to ignore things we haven’t we often refer to this as anecdotal evidence or

5:16 you may be familiar with some logical fallacies through this book such as the argument from Authority where you trust someone telling you something because of their perceived Authority which is why I recommend you check out for yourself you are not so smart and you are now less dumb by David mcrainey and decide

5:37 for yourself hello everyone my name is Chris Johnson I’m the marketing and communications manager for the Bill of Rights Institute and I’m here today to recommend to you a book that I’ve just finished reading it’s called stony the road reconstruction white supremacy and the rise of Jim Crow by dr. Henry Louis

5:59 Gates Jr who I’m sure many of you have heard of acclaimed historian and author this entire book folks is a reminder that the Civil War while it may have ended slavery in America it did not end anti-black racism in America and in the book dr. Gates makes the case for how a

6:21 deeper examination of the period after the Civil War that we refer to as reconstruction which lasted from 1865 all the way up through 1877 understanding this period is crucial to a better understanding of the racial politics in America today second decade of the 21st century

6:41 equally important is a better understanding of the the severe backlash against the gains of reconstruction what we refer to as the Redemption period that immediately followed it this backlash took the overt form of segregationist Jim Crow laws violent uprisings lynchings and outright

7:04 terrorism of black communities throughout the country and it took less overt form but just a sinister in newspaper articles propaganda basically and images in popular culture of black men in particular depicted as predators or buffoons not trustworthy or capable

7:24 of self-government gates tells the inspiring story within this context of the men and women like WB Dubois and I to be wells who stood up against these southern apologists and their attempts to negate the gains of reconstruction in short what he succeeds really well in doing is putting the period within a

7:44 very rich cultural context which makes it a lot easier for the modern reader to understand how deeply embedded some of the racist attitudes are that that we still unfortunately find prevalent in so so many parts of American society today the images in this book by the way also make for really great primary source

8:05 analysis of the period for any us history classroom so I definitely recommend that you check it out so it’s for all these reasons that I highly recommend stony the road and the companion QBs series which you can find you can stream live on the PBS app or get from your local PBS station

8:26 great for summer reading and some reviewing I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and we’ll look forward to seeing you again soon take care now did you know that today Mary Todd Lincoln probably would have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or even schizophrenia did you know she was put on trial in 1875 by her only son to be declared legally insane

8:47 I didn’t either until I read the madness of Mary Lincoln by Jason Emerson back in 1875 Mary was struggling very much with her mental health and her only living son Robert realized that he could not help her the way that she needed to be helped he had his own family he was trying to grow he had a career he was trying to focus on and he just didn’t have the skill set or the time to help

9:08 his mom the way she needed while Abraham Lincoln was alive he had been able to handle Mary and her outbursts than anything else that her mental illness kind of threw at them and unfortunately Robert realized the only way he could really get his mother the help she needed was to put her on trial declare her legally insane and put her in an asylum for at least a little while to

9:29 get the help she needed as you can imagine Mary felt extremely betrayed by her only son to be put into such place even though it was a nice sanitarium it was not one of those awful places you hear about with ice cold baths and you know abusive nurses it was a nice place but Mary fell into a very deep depression because of how betrayed she

9:51 felt and she even attempted to commit suicide the day before she was supposed to be put into the sanitarium it’s a very interesting read as today we have pretty good discourse about mental health but it was really interesting to read about how mental health was handled during the 1870s both by Mary’s doctors as well as her friends and family the

10:11 book also has a lot of be rights values including courage humility and vigilance so if you’re looking for something to read this summer I strongly recommend picking up the madness of Mary Lincoln by Jason Emerson Tony Williams with the Bill of Rights Institute senior fellow there and I’m pleased to be participating in the summer book review the book I’ve chosen is C Bradley

10:35 Thompson’s America’s revolutionary mind a moral history of the American Revolution and the Declaration that defined it Thompson is a professor at Clemson University and the author of a an excellent book on the political

10:55 philosophy of John abs and in this book Thompson really takes seriously the natural law and natural rights the the immutable and universal principles of the Declaration of Independence he

11:15 firmly places that natural rights and natural law tradition within the the broader context of the 18th century enlightenment and specifically the ideas of John Locke now he argues that the founders and Locke looked at human nature and used reason to discern that

11:42 human beings were equal they were equal in their rights they were equal in their liberties they were equal in their rights to govern themselves by their own consent now for Thompson as for the founders these were moral principles

12:03 right because they were they were self-evidently true and discoverable by reason and their moral because they addressed the yearnings of human nature to be free and to govern ourselves by our own consent pursuing our own happiness within the boundaries of

12:25 natural law on virtue now Thompson’s written what I think is is probably the best book on the Declaration of Independence that I’ve read it may not always be a page-turner it may not be a beast read this summer but it’s a really important book that should be taken

12:47 seriously and read carefully because it’ll be a very important contribution to the discussion around American principles that was taking place so again the book is he Bradley Thompson America’s revolutionary mind a moral history of the American Revolution and the declaration that defined it and

13:08 I hope you’ll join me in reading this book this summer well thank you for listening and happy reading hello teachers and happy summer it just so happens that one of my favorite books is arguably the most famous graduation speech of all time and oh the places you’ll go dr. Seuss gives us a wonderful metaphor for life it’s a great balancing

13:31 act we have brains in our head we have feet in our shoes and we can choose to do whatever we want to do we can nail every lesson we can reach every student we can always eat healthy balanced breakfasts and not cookies not that I do that or condone that sort of behavior but sometimes we don’t or sometimes we won’t or sometimes it feels like we’re

13:52 alone in the world is against us slums happen as dr. Seuss tells us and unslung being yourself is not easily done but if you work hard and you persevere and you have a will then there’s a good chance that you can work your way out here at the Bill of Rights Institute and we believe in education for self-governance and self-government begins with you the

14:13 individual and how you choose to behave or how you choose to act or as dr. Seuss says you’re the guy or the girl will decide the way that you want to go now definitely not an expert at life and I promise that I do actually read books men for adults too but I think that oh the places you’ll go gives us a really important reminder no matter what your

14:35 age is so as the good doctor says today is your day where are you waiting for go move mountains or small hills or maybe just lay low and breathe because after all life is a great balancing act [Music]

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