The Water Dipper

Local History, Local Conservatism, and Local Pharmacies

“How Local History Can Save America: The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Frederick Douglass.” John W. Miller recommends an essay about the place where Frederick Douglass fought...

Trades, the Digital Public Square, and Conservative Environmentalism

“Arguing with Success.” Rory Groves writes about how his dissatisfaction with the business model of the tech industry led him on a quest for...

Seeds, Meritocracy, and Kazuo Ishiguro

“Words and Flesh: Pastoring in a Post-truth World.” In this wise essay, Kurt Armstrong begins with Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography...

Right to Repair, Outrage, and Defining Progress

“John Deere Promised Farmers It Would Make Tractors Easy to Repair. It Lied.” Jason Koebler and Matthew Gault investigate to see whether John Deere...

Local Democracy, Resilient Agriculture, and the Classics

“Vermont’s Superpower, Revealed: The Ability to Practice Local Democracy.” Susan Clark writes about the formative role that Vermont’s annual town meetings play in training...

Tech Critique, Simone Weil, and Visceral Lending

We've got a cover and table of contents for the spring issue of Local Culture. If you're a subscriber, you can expect to get...

Friendship, GameStop, and James Herriot

"Eric Gill and the Integrity of Work." In a new preface to an edition of Gill's writings, Wendell Berry identifies the endemic flaw of...

Housekeeping, Epiphany, and a National Elite

“America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates.” Ariel Shapiro writes about the massive consolidation of land ownership. Gates is focusing on farmland,...

Precedents, Technosolutionism, and A Hidden Life

“Why I Choose Rural.” Benya Kraus explains why she chose to move to rural Minnesota after graduating from college: “Though I spent my childhood...

Fantasies, a City on the Hill, and Baking Bread

“Failures of Leadership in a Populist Age.” In an essay that rings even more true after the events of Wednesday, Yuval Levin warns would-be...