Just like I do with my weekly newsletter, C-SPAN Classroom sends their weekly newsletter on Sunday evenings (Eastern Time). When I read it last night I learned about a new C-SPAN series that sounds great! It’s called Books That Shaped America and it is presented by C-SPAN in conjunction with the Library of Congress.
Books That Shaped America is a ten-part weekly series that is beginning on September 18th. Each episode will feature one of ten books from American history that have shaped and impacted American society. The episodes will include commentary and analysis from experts on each book.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is the first book that will be featured in the series. The Federalist Papers will be featured in the second episode. A couple of other works to be featured in the series are Their Eyes Were Watching God and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Each episode of Books That Shaped America will air at 9pm ET and be available on-demand on C-SPAN.org afterward. There are lesson materials planned for release to accompany the series although those materials are not yet published.
On a related note, most of the books in the series are available to find and read for free on Google Books and or at your local library. Complete copies of The Federalist Papers are available to read for free right here on the Avalon Project.