Text-based civic education has, in fact, long been practiced by the councils. In Nebraska, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Utah, for example, the humanities councils serve as state coordinators for the Capitol Forum on America’s Future, a program that offers opportunities for high school social studies teachers and their students to devote a year of study to the role of the United States in world affairs. Councils also sponsor humanities-based civic leadership programs, such as Leadership Anchorage in Alaska, the Indiana Humanities Council’s Habits of the Heart program, which offers training in volunteerism and philanthropy for children and youth, and the Georgia Humanities Council’s annual Leadership Forum.

State humanities councils bring the humanities to the public on a large scale, embracing populations of entire towns, cities, or regions. The councils are directly responsible for the revival of Chautauqua, the nineteenth-century institution that combines public entertainment and learning, and what Theodore Roosevelt once called “the most American thing in America.” The encouragement of reading is a core function of the state humanities councils. State councils have been influential in founding and supporting book festivals around the country that attract large and devoted crowds. These festivals feature readers, authors, poets, storytellers, booksellers, and bookmakers. The largest scale reading program undertaken by a state humanities council is the statewide reading of John Steinbeck’s California migration story, The Grapes of Wrath. Thousands of Californians responded to the California Council’s invitation to read the Steinbeck novel and share stories of their California experiences. Almost two hundred libraries, as well as a host of other community organizations, held related events such as a teen essay contest in San Rafael and a twentyfour-hour readathon in Fresno.