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Dutch philosopher and educator Josha Sietsma immediately fell in love with the Nebraska Capitol when he visited it on a private tour six years ago. Now, he’s written a book about it.

Sietsma will hold a book talk and signing on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Francie & Finch Bookshop to launch “Think. Define. Choose. How 21 Stories Shaped Life in Nebraska.� The book focuses on the 21 exterior panels of the Capitol and how philosophy influenced the man who designed them.

Sietsma said the book started as a collection of academic papers he wrote over the years.

“People don’t really read those academia papers. They’re boring. They’re long. It’s tough to go through,� Sietsma said. “So I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s make a book for the public just to be able to be aware of what’s really intended with the exterior.’�

Sietsma, a resident of Bennekom in the Netherlands, immediately fell in love with Nebraska after visiting friends he made as a fellow of the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., he said. He received a private, after-hours tour of the Capitol after attending a Husker football game on his birthday in November.

The exterior panels caught his attention, he said, because there had to have been active intention behind each one’s creation.

What started as initial curiosity turned into something more when Sietsma, who holds degrees in philosophy and education, started researching and writing about the subject during the pandemic.

“I feel like my life sometimes is chaotic, and just like everybody else is, you try to order the chaos, right?� Sietsma said. “And I felt like this Capitol is trying to order some kind of chaos using stories. But which stories and why?�

According to the Nebraska Capitol’s , Hartley Burr Alexander, the designer of the panels, was a native of Lincoln. Alexander was appointed as a professor and dean of philosophy at the University of Nebraska in 1908.

Sietsma connected each of the values demonstrated in the panels to a basic human right and said that Alexander considered the historical context of each one in the design.

"Alexander clearly had an idea of what 'the good life' should look like," Sietsma said. "My point is, 'Do you want to know what 'the good life' is? Look at those 21 panels.'"

Megan Mejstrik, the lead bookseller at Francie & Finch, said local relevance and community interest are two of many factors that go into what events the bookstore hosts.

"We do get requests sometimes about, you know, 'Don't you have any books about the history of the Capitol?'" Mejstrik said. "So when this came across, it seemed like a good fit and that folks would be interested."

Sietsma said he hopes his book fosters conversation about what "the good life" means for individuals, as the nature of the Capitol's design is meant to pose questions.

"I feel like the real richness of those panels can only be achieved if you talk about it," Sietsma said.