The Power of Deep Reading and Civic Engagement

In celebration of John Adams’s 289th birthday, Jeffrey Rosen joins a discussion on Adams’s legacy with Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Jane Kamensky, president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Kurt Graham, president of the Adams Presidential Center, moderates. They explore the constitutional legacy of the Adams family—including John and Abigail Adams and John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams—and discuss the importance of resurrecting the Adams family’s tradition of self-mastery and self-improvement to defend the American Idea. This conversation was originally aired at the Adams Presidential Center as part of the 2024 Adams Speaker Series.  

Resources: 

• Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness (2024) 
• Jane Kamensky, The Colonial Mosaic: American Women 1600-1760 (1998) 
• Danielle Allen, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014)

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