Place. Limits. Liberty.
Support FPR’s print journal and selection of books.

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…

Causes and Lessons of the Current Economic Crisis

ERIE, PA. As a new contributor to the Front Porch Republic, I would like to thank Mark Mitchell for his invitation to participate in what is shaping up to be…
April 28, 2009

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

Letter from a Traditional Conservative

Devon, PA.  Upon reading an essay of Patrick Deneen's, a close and dear relative recently wrote me, protesting the uselessness of the terms "liberal" and "conservative."  They are simplifying terms, and inadequate…
April 23, 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

Feed Fish to the Leviathan

Devon, PA.  Stanley Fish has taken up a lot of public space during his career, but never has he darkened the depths in such monstrous fashion as he does in…
April 16, 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

The Wise Old Œconomist

Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. Before it became a science of supply and demand and the circulation of commodities, economics was originally understood as the wisdom of household management. The Greek word…
April 10, 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

Sex, Eschatology, and Everyday Life

Devon, PA.  I have contended that the two most vocal sources of outrage at Pope Benedict XVI's remark about the deleterious role of condoms in Africa did not in fact…