First Readings is Brown’s summer reading project for all new students. Now in its sixth year, the program provides first-year and transfer students with a common reading experience that introduces them to the University and to the pleasures and rigors of undergraduate academic life. The program is sponsored by the Dean of the College and Brown Alumni Association. Learn more about the program in this letter from Dean Katherine Bergeron.

Students receive their first reading over the summer and write letters to their advisors on an aspect of it that they find particularly compelling, difficult, or curious. In this way, they begin a dialogue with their first-year advisors about their academic interests and their expectations for life at Brown. During Orientation, students meet in small groups for a First Readings Seminar, led by a member of the faculty or an upper-level administrator. These seminars afford students the chance to meet their peers and to begin conversations based upon their shared readings.

The Book

Sons of Providence by Charles Rappleye is the biography of John and Moses Brown, two brothers caught at opposite ends of the slavery issue in the early beginnings of colonial America. The story spans a century, from John’s birth in 1736, through the Revolution, to Moses’ death in 1836. The brothers were partners in business, politics, and the founding of Brown University. They joined in the struggle against England. But ultimately, Moses became an early abolitionist while John defended the slave trade and broke the laws written to stop it. Rappleye creates this story of two brothers from a series family papers and other primary sources (some of which are held in the Brown University libraries).

The Author

Charles Rappleye is an award-winning investigative journalist and editor. He has written extensively on media, law enforcement, and organized crime. His work appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review, LA Weekly, LA CityBeat, and OC Weekly. He is also the co-founder, along with his wife Tulsa Kinney, of the art magazine Artillery. He lives in Los Angeles.