The Water Dipper 334
Addictive Technology, Land Use, and Saving the Amazon
Most of my reading time this week went to poring over proofs for the first issue of the FPR print journal. We should have copies fresh from the press at…
Beyond Capitalism, National Conservatism, and Millennial Nuns
“Going Home with Wendell Berry.” Amanda Petrusich corresponded with Berry and then spent two days in Port Royal continuing their conversation. The result is a rich and wise conversation in…
Convenience, Abortion, and Friendship
I’ll be taking a break from the internet for a couple of weeks to recreate (and to get some writing done). I’m not sure when I’ll resume these weekly Water…
Plastic, Local Feasting, and Family Farms
“Book Review: Dignity by Chris Arnade.” Jake Meador uses Patrick Deneen’s recent work to frame a reading of Arnade’s photographs and stories. In a book that does not shy away…
Pelagians, Lithium Mines, and Progressive Occultism
“The Politics of Dystopia.” Ross Douthat seems to be thinking about Deneen’s book these days: “On right and left, it has become easier to imagine ways the liberal order might…
“Free America,” Work Colleges, and Seeds
“The Small and the Human, and ‘Free America’.” The University Bookman ran an excerpt from Allan C. Carlson’s forthcoming book, Land, True Liberty & Democracy: The Story of ‘Free America.’ It narrates the story…
Mythical Mammals, College Libraries, and David French-ism
“More Than Mildly Amusing.” I heartily second Elizabeth Bittner’s recommendation of Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals; it’s a children’s book that rewards re-readings, and the glossary combines wit and wisdom. “How…
A Hidden Life, Carbon Credits, and the American Solidarity Party
“Has Our Food Become Safer in the Last 10 Years?” Four experts discuss food safety regulations, consolidation, and local food systems for Civil Eats. “Starting Seeds.” Darby Weaver surveys some of…
Back Row America, Marilynne Robinson, and Peter Maurin
“Our Unsexy Future.” Joseph Bottum reviews Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity by Jamie Metzl, drawing attention to “an underappreciated principle of any new technology as it starts to…
Underrating Humans, John Lukacs, and the Digital Town Square
“James Matthew Wilson on What Poetry Is, and Isn’t.” Mary Spencer interviews James Matthew Wilson for National Review about his work as a poet. “Are Robots Really Coming for Your Job?” Bill…
Aaron Wolf, Kansas, and a Treasonous Meritocrat?
“‘It’s a Groundswell’: The Farmers Fighting to Save the Earth’s Soil.” Matthew Taylor reports for The Guardian on how no-till farming, or “conservation agriculture” can help to improve soil health. On Easter,…
Underland, 737 Max, and Earth Day
“What Lies Beneath: Robert Macfarlane Travels ‘Underland.’” Robert Macfarlane writes about his new book and the subterranean journeys it traces. “Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson and David Kline.” Listen to the…
English Land Ownership, The Overstory, and Artificial Intelligence
“Winning the Peace.” Part reflection on C.S. Lewis’s “Learning in War-Time” and part a response to Alan Jacobs’s The Year of Our Lord 1943, Christopher Beha’s Harper’s essay is an excellent defense of…
Madeleine L’Engle, Slow Media, and Populism
“A Flourishing Tree.” Tamara Hill Murphy reviews Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace by Christie Purifoy, a book that circles “round and round the subject of finding, losing, and making…
Monsanto, the Heartland Forum, and Becoming Creaturely
“The Center Holds.” Nicole M. King reviews The Midwestern Moment: The Forgotten World of Early Twentieth-Century Midwestern Regionalism, 1880-1940, edited by Jon K. Lauck, for the University Bookman. The table of contents…
The Table, Topsoil, and the Midwest
Plough Quarterly No. 20: The Welcome Table. The Spring issue of Plough Quarterly is online and has many essays of interest to Porchers. To mention just a few, Norman Wirzba writes about hospitality…
Dairy Farmers, Nebraska, and the Common Good
"Sealed in Blood: Aristopopulism and the City of Man.” Susannah Black wrote a small book in response to Patrick Deneen’s recent talk on aristopopulism. It’s quite rich and merits slow,…
Caretaking, Decadence, and Widow Places
“Caretaking.” There are many gems in this conversation between Wendell Berry and Helena Norberg-Hodge in Orion Magazine. Here’s one from Berry: My quarrel with “movements,” and the reason I use it…
Aristopopulism, Partisan Divides, and John Ruskin
Make plans to join FPR in Louisville on September 14th for our fall conference: Paying Tribute to Wendell Berry. "The Integralist Mirroring of Liberal Ideals." Timothy Troutner offers a critique…
Seeds, Workism, and Stoner
“Seeding Control to Big Ag.” Gracy Olmstead marvels at the wonders of seeds and explains the complex history by which a few large companies have come to dominate their distribution…
The Invisible Hand, Context, and Farm Robots
“Liberalism and the Invisible Hand.” Adrian Vermeule’s essay in American Affairs is worth printing and reading with care. He argues that “the key hallmarks or notes of liberalism’s invisible hand systems are…
Green New Deal, Tech Utopia, and Faith
“Growing a Green New Deal: Agriculture’s Role in Economic Justice and Ecological Sustainability.” Fred Iutzi and Robert Jensen consider the promise and peril of the Green New Deal and warn…
Robots, Andrew Jackson, and Spiritual Journeys
“Best of Bacevich.” Mark G. Brennan reviews Andrew Bacevich’s new collection of essays and finds his assessment of American foreign policy to be, as one would expect, pugnacious and provocative.…
Conservative Treehuggers, Manufacturing, and Monks
“Farms, More Productive Than Ever, Are Poisoning Drinking Water in Rural America.” Jesse Newman and Patrick McGroarty find that fertilizer and concentrated manure are polluting many rural wells. (Recommended by…