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Articles Archive

Fire Burn And Cauldron Bubble

Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles.

Being in ones 20’s and single. Make that 30’s. Make that 40’s.

In 2010, for the first time in our nation’s history, men constituted a minority of the nation’s workforce. Colleges typically boast a 60-40 female-male ratio. Women make up an ever-larger…
Jeff Polet
October 31, 2011

If Not Exceptional, How about Unusual

I am loathe to dissent from Mark Mitchell's thoughtful piece on American exceptionalism, true FroPo that I am. And I could simply add a comment to the post along with…
October 31, 2011

A Sense of Owingness

Like so many others, I spent too much time hoodwinked by the story of liberation, emancipation, and autonomy. What it meant to be free, I supposed, was to be free…

Mafia Among the Mountain Folk, Part II

“I don’t care if you bring the president of Peru and a thousand police—we’ll be carried out dead before you dig here!”  Thus was the position of the twenty or…
October 27, 2011

Catholic Teaching and Global Political Authority

Devon, PA.  Peter Haworth has rightly drawn our attention to the new Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace document, "Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context…

Rebuilding a rural economy

Readers of this site might be interested in a recent Daily Yonder newsstory on job creation in southeastern Ohio.  This Ford Foundation-underwritten project is trying to create rural jobs by adding value…
Katherine Dalton
October 26, 2011

2012 Elizabeth Madox Roberts Conference

Those with a taste for rewarding conversation and exciting scholarship should take note, as should those fond of good bourbon, gorgeous country, and genuine Kentucky fried chicken:  The XIV Annual…

Come Saturday Evening…

....we'll be reading aloud--for the fourteenth consecutive year--from the works of Batavia's native (if sometimes wayward) son John Gardner. Where? The Pokadot, literary-culinary capital of NY, at the corner of…
October 21, 2011

Vico on Probable Knowledge

I would submit that the new conception of rationality we need is really the old one, the humanist one.

Just In Time For Halloween: Peep Show For Ghouls At The Lexington Center

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: To claim that modern America is descending into paganism is grossly unfair… to pagans.

Rousseau on Economics

"If what you wish is merely to make a great splash, to be impressive and formidable, to influence other peoples of Europe, you have before you their example: get busy…
Patrick Deneen
October 17, 2011

American Exceptionalism or a Modest Republic?

If you are planning to run for president, here’s a word of advice: you must assert regularly and with great conviction your belief in American Exceptionalism. This seems especially true…
Mark T. Mitchell
October 17, 2011

Cars, Individualism, and the Paradox of Freedom in a Mass Society

The automobile squared perfectly with a distinctive American ideal of freedom—freedom of mobility.

B Movies–in Black and White

No, not the tune by the Fabulous Poodles, but rather my memories of Peter H. Clune, who was gunned down in the bleakest film noir you'll ever see: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/the-last-picture-show/.
October 13, 2011

George F. Will and the Decline of the Tory

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS I don't know how many people in the conservative public sphere read George F. Will closely any longer--maybe lots of them do, but…
October 12, 2011

To the Windy City and the Golden Dome

I'll be in The City of the Big Shoulders this Thursday and Friday, October 13-14, both to attend and to participate in a conference at the University of Chicago honoring…
Patrick Deneen
October 10, 2011

Nihilism or Idolatry

Devon, PA.  The latest issue of the Intercollegiate Review is out, including my review of All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age.  This…

October, Momma, and Memory

It is a reminder that our own personal winter is coming. When you are daily reminded of your own bones by pains in your joints, seeing a skeleton dangling from…
October 10, 2011

The Capivari Option: A Local Currency Bolsters a Poor Town

On September 20, 2011 the Wall Street Journal ran an article on the advantages of localism to the poorest parts of Brazil.  Paulo Prada, reporting from Brazil, interviewed townspeople who…
October 7, 2011

Jane Jacobs: A Symposium

The American Conservative has published a symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jane Jacobs's book The Death and Life of the Great American Cities. The symposium features…
Mark T. Mitchell
October 7, 2011

There’s No Place Like Home

Absent is the self-examination of the person in the mirror and how we exchange with loved ones around the dinner table. Forgotten is how to live a life more thoughtfully,…

Global Warming, Local Farming, and Naomi Klein: A Trip to the Land Institute

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS A couple of weeks ago some fine intellectuals, political figures, journalists, and activists associated with this blog gathered together to talk about localism,…
October 6, 2011

The Return of the Red Tory

Our friend Phillip Blond returns to the U.S., landing first in Washington, D.C., where he will join me tomorrow evening, Thursday October 6 for a "conversation" about his recent work,…
Patrick Deneen
October 5, 2011