Articles Written By Clay Risen
TMN Contributing Writer Clay Risen’s first attempt to build a website fell apart after he learned that risen.com had been bought by a hardcore Christian rock band. Clay is the author of A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination. He lives in Brooklyn.
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When Presidents Drink
Four More Beers
One of the most striking differences between U.S. presidents is how they choose to stock the White House bar. From teetotalers to all-out drunks, a brief history of presidents and their preferred libations.
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Where We Should Live
Athens of the Now
Twenty years ago—or even 10—Nashville was falling to the bottom of any list of top U.S. destinations. Music City’s recent resurgence is a reminder of what Americans really value.
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In The Movies
As Time Goes By
In the past 20 years, movies and the quotes they’ve sprinkled across American pop culture have occupied a shrinking proportion of our social mindshare. It’s time to mark and celebrate the death of the movie catchphrase.
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Opinions
Rising Up at Ground Zero
Construction continues at the new World Trade Center—as does criticism of the approved designs. But a look deep inside the new structure shows the progress so far has proven to be in exactly the right direction.
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Opinions
Tippler, Traitor, Fumbler, Fool
America endlessly honors its best presidents. Enough with that. A demand for a federal holiday to glorify the five who rose so high, only to fail so shamefully.
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New York, New York
What Lies (Horribly) Beneath
Given the latest news about cruise ships from hell, it’s no surprise people are afraid of the ocean. Some are scared their ships will wreck; others are terrified of the wreckage. To confront his phobia of shipwrecks, our correspondent borrows a rowboat to face New York’s dreadnoughts.
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New York, New York
Losing Paradise
For centuries, New Yorkers have looked for relief to the trees of Governors Island—nearby, but a forbidden world away. A new plan to make it more accessible won’t make them feel any better.
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New York, New York
Hello to All That
Joan Didion once called New York “a city only for the very young.” Moving back to the city at age 33, our writer considers her complaints and comes up optimistic.
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Letters From Berlin
The Karlsruhe Complex
The re-opening of a 1970s murder case this summer shocked Germans of all political stripes.
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Letters From Berlin
So Very Weimar
Nearly 20 years after reunification, a trip into the German countryside finds that the past persists: murder and prostitutes and birthday parties, and plenty of wild boar.
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Letters From Berlin
America on the Spree
Inspired by the local architecture and the beer-swilling, chain-smoking new parents, our man in Berlin discovers equal parts Chicago and New York in Germany’s largest city.
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Letters From Berlin
Bohemian Eulogy
Anarchy is dying in Berlin, and Tina Turner swung the axe. Beginning a new series, our man in Germany reports from a park full of arsonists, punks, and frotteurs.