Syllabus for The Bill of Obligations by Richard Haass

In The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, Richard Haass argues that a healthy democracy depends not only on the rights citizens enjoy, but also on the responsibilities they uphold. Drawing on history, political philosophy, and contemporary civic challenges, Haass outlines ten civic habits—from being informed and participating in public life to

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FROM THE PAGE: Read an excerpt from George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan

With Saint Joan, which distills many of the ideas Shaw had been exploring in earlier works on politics, religion, feminism, and creative evolution, he reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc, but unhappy with the way she had traditionally been depicted, Shaw wanted to remove

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FROM THE PAGE: Read an excerpt from Michael Luo’s Strangers in the Land

Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction From New Yorker writer Michael Luo comes a masterful narrative history of the Chinese in America that traces the sorrowful theme of exclusion and documents their more than century-long struggle to belong.   Chapter 1 Gold Mountain Huie Kin grew up in Wing Ning, a tiny village

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