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

Sustainability in Cities that Hold Steady

Wichita, KS, is a large city, a regional center for manufacturing, medicine, finance, and the arts. It's also a politically conservative place, which means...

Christopher Lasch and the Lasting Dilemma of Localism

This past weekend, at the annual Front Porch Republic gathering (this year held at SUNY-Geneseo), three scholars reflected upon the writings of the historian...

Wichita and the Dilemma of Mid-Sized Cities

There's been some depressing news here in Wichita, Kansas, of late. Not the sort of depressing news that one might typically fear to hear...

The Decline of the Tory, A Continuing Saga

In a recent broadside against the teachings of what Damon Linker correctly notes today as the world's "politically inconvenient pontiff," George F. Will--with unsurprising...

Whatever Happened to Communitarianism?

Twenty years ago, the concept and label "communitarianism" was riding high, or at least as high as any broadly applicable yet intellectually coherent ideological...

From the Distant Liberal Consensus, a Defiant Conservative Yelp

As I write this review, I keep hearing about Jeb Bush, campaigning for president, talking about how the invasion of Iraq and the removal...

Bernie Sanders: Front Porch Socialist?

This October, Front Porch Republic will host its annual conference in Geneseo, NY, just a short day's drive from Burlington, Vermont, the home current...

A Presidential Proposal Worthy of the Porch

The blogger, pundit, screenwriter, and all-around mensch Noah Millman has come up with a brilliant idea--Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont, and Jim Webb,...

Hanging Out with, and Learning from, Some Thoroughly Material Benedictines

A few weeks ago I was able to, once again, do something that I enjoy doing immensely--take a group of students out on a...

Once Again, the Opponents of Unsupervised Children are Revealed

The story is pretty much the same as before: you have children that are placed in a situation which many people would consider less...

Why Cities Ought to, Sometimes, Challenge Their States

On next Tuesday’s ballot here in Wichita, KS, voters will be able to, whether they realize it or not, directly contribute to an ongoing...

“I’ve been called a Marxist and a conservative. I guess both are kind of true.”

Matthew Crawford, about whom we have talked a good deal before here at Front Porch Republic, is back with a new book. Like so...