Articles Archive

The New York Times recently ran a précis of a book by Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University and the author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary…

Holland MI. As if my beloved state of Michigan hasn’t had enough problems, we now have Republican presidential candidates skittering across our fair soil and bucolic shorelines, plugging up our phone…

Big-city economic development from the pasture up.

In The Supper of the Lamb, a delightfully odd book, Robert Farrar Capon suggests as an exercise in reality an extended session with an onion. “Once you are seated,” he…

David Brooks weighs in on the latest data regarding marriage. The poor man. I know of no one who is more tied in knots over contemporary notions of autonomy than…

Whew! Allow me to take off my reporter hat for just one minute and put on my opinion columnist cap. I don't know about you, but I've been worried for…

Along with the recent debate over contraceptive coverage, it is clear that not only has sex permeated our politics and cultural life (Kristof couldn't be more disingenuous), but it has…

I was invited by the good people at "Minding the Campus" to write a response to the recently released 2011 American Freshman Survey. My brief essay is now available on…

Devon, PA.  A few years ago, Jason Peters swore Learical revenges on me for reprinting a poem of mine on the debauchery of Michigan State students.  He could not understand…

I was delighted to see that Thomas Mallon, a superb novelist whose subject is often American politics (my favorites are Henry and Clara and Two Moons), has just published Watergate:…

Alexandria, VA.  Vast and even incalculable quantities of ink have already been spilled over the issue of the HHS mandate that religious organizations purchase contraception as part of their compliance…

Today is the 100th birthday of the fine State of Arizona, which almost entered the Union as "Arizona the Great."

Plenty of space, I concluded with a glance at the approaching headlights in my left mirror.  I let the clutch out smoothly and started what felt like a routine merge…

Devon, PA.  Cursed with a lousy city newspaper rife with good coupons, I sat down with my coffee this morning to read Karen Heller's latest column, "What?  Birth Control?  Again?" …

The indispensable Tony Esolen, invoking the themes of place, limits, and liberty with great eloquence.  

In Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the character Tomas is an inveterate womanizer, a man who takes notes on the particular physical differences, however minute, of the women…

Purcellville, VA. Our readers will be delighted to know that Mr. Wendell Berry has been named the 41st Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. The 2012 Jefferson Lecture, sponsored by the…

If you think you may legitimately enjoy the physical benefits of a place while dwelling in the airy regions of judgment above it, you’d better think again.

FPR readers in Philadelphia should visit their new exhibit featuring several unusual Vincet Van Gogh nature paintings.

Kearneysville, WV. As this election cycle grinds on, and as Washington prepares for CPAC's 2012 event, each Republican candidate continues to claim that he best represents the conservative ideal. In…

Jesus without religion is like thinking without tradition.

I had previously thought that Ground Hog Day was strictly a holiday for the residents of the virtuous commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Turns out that the day is celebrated far and…

“Dexia” is not a word familiar to most Americans, and if told that it is a French bank in need of a fresh bailout, the knowledge would likely elicit no…

Devon, PA.  The Catholic magazine of arts and letters, Dappled Things, is no stranger to the writers of FPR, having published a debate on the free market between John Médaille and…