Sunday
September 22, 2019
Subscribe
Print or Web publication

Clay Risen

Clay Risen is a senior staff editor at The New York Times and the author, most recently, of The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act.

Herman Hesse’s <em>The Glass Bead Game</em>

Herman Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game

The difference between scholarship and wisdom

by Clay Risen | Monday, November 09, 2015
Lithium, Water, and Suicide placeholder image

Lithium, Water, and Suicide

by Clay Risen | Thursday, June 27, 2013
Spies Among Us placeholder image

Spies Among Us

Military snooping on civilians, which escalated in the turbulent '60s, never entirely went away and is back again on a much larger scale

by Clay Risen | Monday, December 01, 2008
Smarty Pants Podcast

Newsletter


THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

2nd Look

Five Books Banned for Dubious Reasons—And Why You Should Definitely Read Them

by Our Editors

To Kill A Mockingbird and Fifty Shades of Gray may have more in common than we thought. Both books have made the American Library Association’s annual “Top Ten Most Challenged Books” list, as part of the ALA’s Banned Books Week effort to raise awareness about the freedom to read. While Fifty Shades of Gray might seem like an obvious contender for a list of commonly challenged books, other entries are more surprising. To mark this year’s Banned Books Week, from September 22 to 28, we’ve resurrected five books from the past banned for dubious reasons. We think you’re tough enough to handle it.