Chicago, Illinois - On April 4th, over 300 people attended a Community Conversation with
Atlantic Monthly correspondent James Fallows at the Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center as part of the
One Book, One Chicago initiative.
Mr. Fallows discussed his experiences covering the war in Iraq and the
challenges involved in building a civil society there. He spoke about
the difficulties of decisions involving war, and compared the situation
in Iraq with the One Book selection,
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The book, about the title character's life
in a Siberian labor camp during the Stalin era, explores such Facing
History and Ourselves' themes as maintaining human dignity and
individual identity in the face of oppression, and the obligation to
understand differing world views.
Facing History and Ourselves provided curricular support for the
One Book, One Chicago
initiative, and provided Facing History students from Walter Payton
College Prep the opportunity to discuss the book with a school in
Moscow.
Community Conversations
is a national speaker series offered by Facing History and The Allstate
Foundation that examines issues of civic responsibility.
