Place. Limits. Liberty.
Join us for FPR’s 2025 Conference on “Work and Leisure”

The Editors

Articles by The Editors

I Love Rock and Roll

Claremont, CA - The first thing you see, when you enter the Memphis Rock N Soul Museum, is a front porch. This front porch is a dilapidated thing, decorated with…

Walking to School, Slackerdom, and Other Revolutionary Acts

Wichita, KS I was born in 1968, and my childhood was the 1970s. My family lived, during those years, in five different homes (all in the same county, though, so…
April 28, 2009

A Call to Arms

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.  The review below was first published in the Intercollegiate Review in the fall of 2006.  Look Homeward, America was my first introduction to the work of the…

On Passing Water and other Spiritual Considerations

The Bar Jester is nearly as funny as Jeremy's limp cigar and Carrie Nation look of shocked indignation at the beverage he has just been served.  And this bit By my…
April 27, 2009

Obama’s Small Town Values – Not

I posted this piece at What I Saw In America on Friday last; for any readers of both these sites, I apologize for the redundancy.  However, I think this posting…
Patrick Deneen
April 27, 2009

Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit

Via a friendly reader, comes a link to this fine and wise comment about the important role which public transportation ought to play in the minds of anyone who is…
April 26, 2009

Abraham Lincoln and the Destruction of Place

In case you missed it, 2009 is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Earlier this week I participated in a roundtable discussion on Lincoln’s legacy sponsored by Messiah College and…
April 24, 2009

Walkaway

In addition to frequent searches that lead people to an earlier posting on "monoculture" on my site "What I Saw in America," among the most frequently searched words that bring…
Patrick Deneen
April 24, 2009

Modernity, Fecundity, and Being a Competent Geek

Wichita, KS. Not too long ago, I asked my readers at my main blog just what sort of geek I should be. (The answer, in case it wasn't apparent at…
April 21, 2009

Tea Party

Last week's motley collection of protests against taxation, centralization and the Government are now old news, but their spirit remains perennially relevant. Invoked in the name of the original "Boston…
Patrick Deneen
April 20, 2009

Price, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.*  In 1947, two titans of 20th-century economic theory, Ludwig von Mises and Wilhelm Röpke, met in Röpke's home of Geneva, Switzerland. During the war, the Genevan fathers coped…
April 18, 2009

The Crappiest Generation

I've been recommending this clip from the Conan O'Brien show to anyone willing to listen (many simply back away, slowly...).  It's side-splittingly funny, and about as true as anything I've…
Patrick Deneen
April 18, 2009

To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!

Once upon a time in America, schoolchildren celebrated a lovely little holiday called Arbor Day. The young scholars would sing songs about Johnny Appleseed, recite Joyce Kilmer into the ground,…
April 17, 2009

Money Talks, But It Can’t Sing and Dance and It Can’t Walk

George Will, who once upon a time long ago was capable of making truly thoughtful and important contributions to discussions over liberalism and conservatism in America, but who has, unfortunately,…
April 16, 2009

The Thee-ater of the Bozarts

Louisville, Ky. “Rural dwellers may have boundless tolerance for exaltations of the wonders and mysteries of the natural world, but the urban spirit begins to rebel. By the time this…
Katherine Dalton
April 16, 2009

April 15

Princeton, NJ I have to admit, I have been finding it difficult to write much of anything of late. This is a fairly unusual condition - usually I find no…
Patrick Deneen
April 15, 2009

Ain’t No Anglos at the Park

PHOENIX, AZ. If you know me, and if you are not my insurance agent, you may also know that I occasionally enjoy a good cigar. On major holidays (and, let…
Jeremy Beer
April 14, 2009

Life Amid the Suicide Machines

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.  In small town America, business owners get to sponsor everything from the high school wrestling team to the "pride committee" chili cook off.  One of the events…
April 10, 2009

Does the Way of Improvement Lead Home?

First, let me extend my greetings to the readers of the Front Porch Republic. I have been following conversations here at FPR since it launched earlier this year and find…
April 9, 2009

TAC Counter-Programming on Tea-Party Day

FPR readers should certainly check out the American Conservative today.  First, they have a new essay up by Dermot Quinn on the relationship of Wilhelm Ropke's ideas to the current…
Jeremy Beer
April 9, 2009

How To Tie a Tie

Claremont, CA - I don't know how to tie a tie. But now I know that I am not alone. Do this: On Google, type "how to" - or even…

The Cincinnatus of Thrift

Russell Arben Fox remembers well his thrifty grandmother, and so do I, and so do you, perhaps.  For the rest of the nation there is Amy Dacyczyn of Leeds, Maine,…
Katherine Dalton
April 8, 2009

The Real History of Carter’s “Malaise” Speech

A couple of young, progressive liberals (Kevin Mattson and Ezra Klein) note what too many mainstream American politicians and pundits have conveniently forgotten: that President Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech--his thoughtful,…
April 8, 2009

G.K. Gets Real

I recently received a handsome, newly published copy of the book America Through European Eyes, published by Penn State University Press and edited by Jeffrey Isaac and Aurelian Craiutu.  …
Patrick Deneen
April 6, 2009