25 Sep Round Up: Noteworthy: The Treasure State’s Book Club

The Montana 250th Commission, created in 2023 to coordinate statewide efforts to commemorate the United States’ semiquincentennial, recently launched Montana Reads: The Treasure State’s Book Club, a monthly online book discussion group that will cover topics related to United States, Montana, and Indigenous history. Each month, a member of the Montana 250th Commission will lead a presentation and discussion on a selected book that explores aspects of our shared history, from the Founding Fathers to Montana statesmen and stateswomen, cultural traditions to amazing innovations. Montanans are encouraged to participate and, when possible, read the book in advance.

After an inaugural kickoff featuring author Stephen Fried and his book on groundbreaking physician Dr. Benjamin Rush and a subsequent discussion on Garrett Graff’s The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, the commission is slated to host historians Marc Johnson and H.W. Brands this fall. On October 9, participants can join a discussion of Johnson’s Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate, and on November 13, Montana Reads will review Brands’ Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and the Brawling Birth of American Politics.

All Montana Reads events will be held on Zoom on the second Thursday of each month, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. To register for events, visit mths.mt.gov/education/index1. For more information, email laura.marsh@mt.gov.