Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox
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https://inmedias.blogspot.com/
Russell Arben Fox is a Front Porch Republic Contributing Editor. He grew up milking cows and baling hay in Spokane Valley, WA, but now lives in Wichita, KS, where he runs the History & Politics and the Honors programs at Friends University, a small Christian liberal arts college. He aspires to write a book about the theory and practice of democracy, community, and environmental sustainability in small to mid-sized cities, like the one he has made his and his family's home; his scribblings pertaining to that and related subjects are collected at the Substack "Wichita and the Mittelpolitan." He also blogs--irregularly and usually at too-great a length--more broadly about politics, philosophy, religion, socialism, bicycling, books, farming, pop music, and whatever else strikes his fancy, at "In Medias Res."

Recent Essays

Rod Dreher Speaking in Wichita, KS

If it so happens that someone who sees this post lives in or within driving distance of Wichita, KS, then let me invite you:...

A Genuinely Original Libertarian Argument?

Yesterday evening, I participated in a symposium sponsored in part by Northfield School of the Liberal Arts, a private Christian academy, here in Wichita,...

If On A Northeastern Ohio Winter’s Night a Traveler…

The good folks at Mackinaw Valley Institute ponder the passage of time and the provisioning of shelter, as people travel from place to place,...

A Semester of Teaching Sustainability

The semester has come to an end here at Friends University, and students are leaving campus for their holiday break. Right now I'm grading,...

What Does it Take to Keep Small Rural Towns Alive?

On the basis of this story out of Morland, KS (population 150, or thereabouts), the answer seems to me: community determination (citizens forming a...

Being Thankful for National Communities and Civil Religion, Sometimes

Amongst those Americans who believe that the civic virtues which make both popular government and a fulfilling independence possible are themselves dependent upon, to...

Thoughts on Elshtain

Jean Bethke Elshtain, a profound and important political theorist and ethicist, died yesterday I was lucky enough to have met her perhaps a handful...

Pondering St. Francisville, Gilead, and our Stories of Place

Jeremy Beer's recent review of The Little Way of Ruthie Leming leads me to once again reflect upon Rod Dreher's excellent book (about which...

The Problem of Undertheorized Agrarianism in Most Actually Argued Localism

That's a terrible title for this post, I know. But hopefully it'll make sense, if you actually make it to the end. First of...

Fresh Water (Now at a Special Discount Price)!

Well, this is rather fascinating: here we have a video of the Austrian businessman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who from 1997 until 2008 was CEO of...

Mark Mitchell’s Politics of Gratitude (Theoretical and Otherwise)

To continue with the excellent discussion begun by R.J. Snell, Mark Mitchell's fine and thoughtful book is filled with important insights and challenges, which...

Some Big Capitalists Do It Right

From what I can tell, most businesses, once they get to a certain size, cannot avoid be lured into the American conviction that you...