Uncategorized 897
What Is Radical Christianity?
This may be a tad tardy, but Jeff Bilbro's write-up and assessment of the conference about Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed caught my eye for several reasons. One was the…
Spirits of Place
John Gatta is the William B. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at Sewanee: The University of the South. He’s the author of several excellent books, including Making Nature Sacred: Literature, Religion,…
Local Identity and Cities In-Between
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] 2018 has been a busy year for those of us who aspire to--or are at least somewhat animated by--localism here in Wichita, KS, the 50th-most…
Parenting, Geoengineering, and Picking up Trash
“Corporate Progressivism.” Patrick Deneen reviews Darel Paul’s From Tolerance to Equality: How Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage. Here’s a taste: There is a striking alignment between this progressive valorization…
Gone Fishing (2)
Sometimes the deluge of content that pours from our 24/7 media threatens to drown us under its cacophony of disinformation. Periodically, then, it is necessary to turn off the spigot…
Social Justice vs. Social Charity
The Pernicious Nature of Charity There is a pernicious force that operates in all societies, but especially in ours and especially in these sad days. It is a force that…
At Last, the FPR Manifesto
... where human affairs are conducted as if place really matters, where economic affairs are conceived as if limits really matter, and where political power is exercised as if liberty…
The Economic Value of Streetcars
Although you would hardly know it today, Baltimore was once a city of streetcars. Crackling densely across the city’s center like fissures in old pavement and then sprawling thinly outward…
Updating the Porch
The noise you are hearing is the furniture moving on the porch. You may have already noticed the redesigned site. Jeff Bilbro has taken the helm as Editor-in-Chief, replacing Jeff…
Reviving the Conversation on the Porch
I’m honored and excited to be joining the Front Porch Republic in a more official capacity and taking over the editorial duties for this site. When I stumbled across FPR…
Podcast Recommendation – Crim and Potts
Chuck Marohn over at Strong Towns does some interesting podcasts, but none more so than a recent one with FPR regulars Elias Crim and Rebekah Grace Potts (somehow Susannah Black…
On Dreher’s Benedict Option, the Christians and Localists Who Can Live It, and the Ones Who Can’t
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Rod Dreher and I aren't close friends, but like many Front Porch Regulars, I've been blessed with the opportunity to associate with and learn from…
The Real Significance of Citizens United
Eastern Ohio Jimmy the Greek, the odds-maker and point-spread pioneer who was born and raised and trained in Steubenville, the former (thirties-era) cigar store paradise thirty miles to my east,…
So Long, Leonard Cohen
One of the pleasures of living near the Canadian border is Canuck radio, which due to local content regulations (the good protectionism) plays a steady diet (varying greatly in nutritional…
Sources of Order: Rooted Cosmopolitanism and the Origins of City Life
What follows is an expanded version of a talk originally given at the 2016 Front Porch Republic Conference at Notre Dame, where Susannah Black spoke on a panel on Promoting…
Hillary’s Communitarian Moment, and Ours
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Thirteen months ago, I wrote a blog post that provided a retrospective on a body of ideas on the 20th anniversary of the greatest level…
6th Annual FPR Meeting to be held at The University of Notre Dame: Register Now!
Join us on October 8 at the University of Notre Dame (Bond Hall) for our 6th annual meeting. The title is Populism, Power, and Place. We've got a fantastic line-up…
Ralph Nader to Host Hometown Book Festival
The tireless consumer advocate and presidential candidate will be hosting the "Booming Winsted" book festival on July 30-31 in his hometown of Winsted, Connecticut. From the press release: “This is…
Ten Theses on Our Populist Moment
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Tomorrow, with the California Democratic primary, the populist developments that so many have observed in this electoral cycle will definitively change. Either Sanders will prevail…
Regional Cities and the Curse of “Glocality”
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] One of the essential themes in my continuing study of and reflection upon the character and dilemmas of mid-sized cities is their "regional" character, and…
What I’ve Learned, and David Brooks (Perhaps) Still Hasn’t
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Among all the major right-wing voices of America's mainstream journalistic establishment, David Brooks is perhaps the most difficult to pin down. Ross Douthat is a…
Two Plus Cheers For Small Houses
In the past two generations, the average house size has nearly doubled, while family sizes have decreased. Chris Wiley, a frequent contributor here, tells us of the virtues of smaller…