Articles Archive
Front Porch Republic and the Communion of Saints
By Kim Daniels and Chad C. Pecknold Wendell Berry might well be the patron saint of Front Porch Republic. Or at least –when we attended FPR’s first conference at Mount Saint Mary’s…
My Congressionally-Mandated Constitution Day Lecture
Wherein I respond to the federal mandate to "celebrate" Constitution Day. The text is taken from a lecture I gave at Northwood University, co-sponsored by ISI and the Jack Miller…
Porchfest
A neighborhood in Ithaca, NY is doing something special. It's called Porchfest. Here's a taste, but be sure to go to the story and scroll down to the video. Porchfest…
Plutonomics
I'm a month late on this, but the September Atlantic has a cover story on the disappearing middle-class. If economics refers to household management, then it does seem anachronistic to…
On Power
Every fall I teach a course called “Democracy.” One of the books we invariably read is On Power: The Natural History of its Growth by the French philosopher Bertrand de…
Which Way for Catholics?
For all the Porchers in the New York City area, Christopher Ferrara and I will be speaking at the Una Voce Symposium, Libertarianism or Distributism: Which Way for Catholics? The…
Rod Dreher is Going Home
Here's a taste: Yesterday I rented a house in the historic district of St. Francisville, my hometown. I was on the phone with Mr. Walter, the owner, settling the terms.…
A Question for David Brooks
Alexandria, VA On Monday night of this week, New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke at Georgetown University at the invitation of the program that I founded and direct, "The…
A New FPR Series
We are pleased to announce that John Schwenkler has joined our merry band and has agreed to edit an on-going series titled "The View From Your Front Porch." The first…
The View From Your Front Porch
Emmitsburg, Maryland - You can tell it's a small town when you know both of yesterday's candidates for mayor, and when the mayor-elect's margin of 33 votes constitutes a 20…
“Thrift and Thriving in America”
...is the title of a new multi-author volume edited by Joshua J. Yates and James Davison Hunter of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.…
FPR Conference: A Fine Day in Emmitsburg
For those of you who were not able to be in Emmitsburg on Saturday, you missed a wonderful day. The rain stopped sometime in the night and the early morning…
Robbie George Vs. James Kalb: Is America A Proposition Or A Home?
While I respect Robert George as one of America's preeminent Catholic intellectuals, the gentleman nonetheless errs gravely in envisioning America as a "propositional nation."
Register Now or Git off the Porch!
Actually, feel free to stay in your rocking chair, but if you plan to attend the conference on Saturday, please register here. This will make things much easier for the…
Rd U Ltr NOT :(
More reportage, now by Niall Ferguson, of the obviously depressing news - we are raising a nation of idiots. Half of today’s teenagers don’t read books—except when they’re made to.…
Consolidators
Get ready to fall off your seat. Sarah Palin, a.k.a., Flawed Vessel, recently received a bit of positive press in the New York Times. According to the Time's Anand Giridharadas,…
When What We Say in Private Goes Public
All religious groups have their internecine squabbles and the places where such fights take place. They used to be confined to magazines and journals, and so only followed by the…
CHRONICLES vs. National Public Radio
As Epicurean as apple pie?
Ratification Debate, Part II
Tonight, September 19, FPR's own Bill Kauffman will gird up to re-make the case of the Anti-federalists at the Tocqueville Forum's annual Constitution Day event. He will be debating Professor…
The Real Educational Issue: College Students and a Crisis in Citizenship
The fact that the people who will likely occupy the top of the socio-economic chain—and whose decisions will thus set the terms of most Americans’ existences—have little room for the…
Thoughts on the British Riots
They do not smash shop windows to get their hands on plasma televisions, because their parents' wealth makes such toys readily available to them, but they really have no greater…
Carl Oglesby, RIP
Carl Oglesby, former president of Students for a Democratic Society and folk-singing prophet of Middle American anti-imperialism, died Tuesday. Herewith an interview I conducted with Carl for Reason magazine and a…
On the Use of a Grim Joke and a National Elegy
Until then you’ll welcome into your homes the talking heads who, loving an abstraction, spread a pestilential hatred.
Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising: Ten Years Down the Road
Springsteen’s music does indeed return to the things that are most important in an hour of crisis. But contrary to popular impressions, these things turn out to have very little…