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Jenkinson.field

Clay S. Jenkinson

Editor-at-Large

Clay S. Jenkinson is a historian and humanities scholar based in North Dakota. He is founder of both the Theodore Roosevelt Center and Listening to America.

Clay received a BA from the University of Minnesota, and an MA from Oxford where he was a Rhodes and Danforth Scholar. He is the author of thirteen books, most recently, The Language of Cottonwoods: Essays on the Future of North Dakota. He has appeared in several of Ken Burns’ documentary films.

Clay portrays such historical figures as Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He lives and works on the plains of North Dakota. He is the founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University in western North Dakota, dedicated to the digitization of all of Theodore Roosevelt’s Papers.

He can be reached at ltamerica.org.

History provides us with numerous examples of how knowledge and, most importantly, leadership either withstood the strain of a crisis, or unraveled. We are in one of those periods right now.
A rally at the steps of the state capitol in Bismarck presents an important moment to revisit the unique federalist form of our republic that Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers created more than 200 years ago.
The author’s masterpiece, The Plague, will make you think, ask all sorts of Socratic questions of yourself and form resolutions about how you intend to measure your life after getting through this global catastrophe.
As the world eagerly awaits a vaccine for the coronavirus, 200 years ago a smallpox cure struggled to gain acceptance. This is how our founding fathers helped promote the medical breakthrough that saved countless lives.
Two centuries ago, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had to wait months, sometimes years, for a new book to arrive from Europe. Today, technology has removed boundaries to knowledge that would amaze our founding fathers.
We’re at the height of this epidemic, so the collapse of the Mandan Indian Nation in North Dakota in the late 18th and early 19th centuries from outbreaks of smallpox is a reminder of how ignorance can be so deadly.
As governors take leading positions on how to manage the pandemic, the nearly forgotten cornerstone of the Constitution is relevant again. It’s a reminder of how federalism and our form of government works.
Throughout the ages, writers and historians who have witnessed pandemics have chronicled their impact and provided us with a valuable history lesson on how not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
The removal of Captain Brett E. Cozier of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt for his handling of the coronavirus evokes the sometimes-controversial career of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt.
Jefferson's experience with the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 reinforced his dislike of cities and shaped a radical plan for the development of a new nation that even included his concept of urban design.