America at 250 - Listening To America

America at 250: Our Stuck Constitution

Monday, December 22 2025 by Clay Jenkinson

Clay has debated constitutional scholars and historical impersonators in and out of costume across the United States; addressed 27 state legislatures; Supreme Court summer conferences; and humanities conferences across America. After reading Jill Lepore’s new book, We the People, and following the third of four weekly online classroom sessions, he stepped back to write this week’s essay.

Published in Features

Tagged under: America at 250, Humanities, U.S. Presidents

Are We Rome?

Tuesday, December 02 2025 by Clay Jenkinson

Answer: we are Rome … but are we doomed to suffer the Republic's fate? Clay parallels the Republics (Rome's and our own) considering ways to avoid Rome's calamitous end.

Published in Dispatches from the Road

Tagged under: America at 250, Books, Republics, Rome, The Constitution

The End of Camelot at Last

Tuesday, November 25 2025 by Clay Jenkinson

Clay contemplates the enduring JFK Camelot myth and our longing for a Kennedyesque savior to restore constitutional order, norms, and mutual respect in our current state of the republic.

Published in Features

Tagged under: America at 250, U.S. Presidents

Jefferson and Slavery: Ken Burns on MS-NOW

Tuesday, November 25 2025 by Clay Jenkinson

Clay considers Ken Burns' recent portrayal of Thomas Jefferson in a recent interview, where Burns suggests the Declaration's "all men are created equal" applied only to propertied white males, urging a more nuanced look at Jefferson's universal ideals, racial suspicions, and his own contradictions as a slaveholder.

Published in Dispatches from the Road

Tagged under: America at 250, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Presidents

A 1769 advertisement, placed by Thomas Jefferson, in the Virginia Gazette, offering a reward for the return of an enslaved man named Sandy.

America at 250: The Racial Divide

Monday, November 17 2025 by Clay Jenkinson

Last week, I spoke at a symposium on race and the American Revolution. This essay is the result of my deliberations for that event and is one in a series of essays I’m writing reflecting on a range of issues as America approaches its 250th birthday.