Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox
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https://mmfraf.webs.com/
Russell Arben Fox grew up milking cows and bailing hay in Spokane Valley, WA, but now lives in Wichita, KS, where he runs the History & Politics and the Honors programs at Friends University, a small Christian liberal arts college. He aspires to write a book about the theory and practice of democracy, community, and environmental sustainability in small to mid-sized cities, like the one he has made his and his family's home; his scribblings pertaining to that and related subjects are collected at the Substack "Wichita and the Mittelpolitan." He also blogs--irregularly and usually at too-great a length--more broadly about politics, philosophy, religion, socialism, bicycling, books, farming, pop music, and whatever else strikes his fancy, at "In Medias Res."

Recent Essays

Grace Olmstead’s Uprooted Idaho, and My Own

Uprooted is partly a memoir of her extended family, partly a paean to a way of life that is both dying and which she never really understood while she grew up in the midst of it (and thus feels the loss of all the more deeply now), and partly a study of the causes of that dying, and how what has endured--the habits, the connections, the sense of place--has shaped her extended family nonetheless.

Some Possibly Helpful Thoughts on Localism, Populism, and Proximity During a Pandemic

The departure of Donald Trump from the White House will assuredly not mean the departure of Trumpism from American life. The collection of...

Why The Cult of Smart is a Book for Every Parent in 2020 (Whether Anarcho-Socialist or Not)

The Cult of Smart is deeply entrenched in most modern systems of public education around the world, and the increasingly clear reality of cognitive and genetic differences between different human beings poses a sharp challenge to liberals whose membership in the Cult makes them want to deny this reality entirely.

On the Difficulty of Civic Friendship and Unity in an Angry Time

With the hope that the self-promotion involved doesn't obviate whatever potential value the words written may convey, here is something I wrote, which I'd...

The Anti-Federalists Were Right About Trump (and Many Other Things as Well)

Gillian Brockell, a talented writer and researcher for The Washington Post's history blog Retropolis, interviewed four esteemed historians and scholars of the Constitution,...

Left (not Liberal) Conservatism (or Communitarianism, if you Prefer): A Restatement

Recently, Tablet Magazine published a lengthy essay by Eric Kaufmann, heralding the revival of "left-conservative" thinking, which the author defined as "a conservative view...

Justice Caleb Stegall, Localist and Classical Liberal (Sometimes)

Caleb Stegall was one of the early guiding lights of Front Porch Republic, and his influence on the project, however distant, still endures. I've...

Tending to One’s Garden

Two lives, well-lived, in environments well and lovingly (dis)ordered. In the end, whether it be Monty Don walking through his gardens, or the late...

Thinking about the Post-Pandemic (and, Maybe, the Post-Suburban) Neighborhood

Chuck Marohn's work, whatever disagreements one may have with it, gives us some good counsel on where to start changing suburban-addicted minds and fiscal incentives.

The Next City: A Workshop

On Tuesday, May 5, at 1pm EST, Solidarity Hall and Strong Towns will present a live 90-minute Zoom video session, titled "The Next City,"...

Cities, Common Spaces, and the Coronavirus

To be isolated from one another, and in particular from those third places where the rich possibilities of community are most regularly realized strains urban interdependence as nothing else.

Power, Friendship, and a Better Set of Democratic “Rules”

For those tired of the fake news and play hate, who are convinced by Austin and their own better natures that accomplishing something better is actually still possible within the American system, Hersh provides a detailed, 21st-century appropriate, set of his own "rules."