The End of Camelot at Last
Tuesday, November 25 2025
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
Jefferson and Slavery: Ken Burns on MS-NOW
Tuesday, November 25 2025
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
America at 250: The Racial Divide
Monday, November 17 2025
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.
- Published in Features
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Monday, November 17 2025
Seeing flags at half-mast last week brought to mind the immortal passage from the great poet and scholar John Donne.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Wrecking Ball Presidency
Tuesday, November 04 2025
The demolition of the East Wing of the White House is a clear metaphor for our “CEO” president.
- Published in Features
Steinbeck: A Life of Moral Courage
Monday, October 13 2025
While he avoided the public spotlight, John Steinbeck spent a life "in the arena" exhibiting great moral courage both in his writing and deeds.
- Published in Features
Reopening the Wounds of Wounded Knee
Monday, October 06 2025
Wounded Knee, really?
- Published in Features
Humor on Trial in an Age of Disruption
Monday, September 22 2025
Free speech and the future in context.
- Published in Features
Clay Reads and Riffs on Huckleberry Finn While Sitting Beside the Mighty Mississippi — Video Dispatch
Sunday, August 10 2025
Earlier this summer, Clay Jenkinson traveled to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at Cairo, Illinois. Sitting on the banks of the Mississippi, Clay read from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and talked about the novel and its author, Mark Twain, who enshrined this mighty river deep in American mythology.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Lewis, Clark and Their Dog Seaman — Video Dispatch
Tuesday, July 22 2025
Clay checks in from St. Charles, Missouri, near the mouth of the Missouri River, at Frontier Park, on one of the finest Lewis and Clark statue groups in America.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road