The Editors
Articles by The Editors
The Yankee Southern Agrarian
Wendell Berry, while still writing more than most of us, is squarely in the awards and laurels stage of his earthly journey. Who will continue the call for sanity and…
Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A week ago I was able to organize a small group of friends to attend a fine, relatively intimate event at Sterling College, a small…
A Case for Shame
In Canto XXX of the Inferno, Dante becomes fascinated with an argument between Sinon the Greek and Master Adamo, both of them condemned for sowing discord. Virgil, his guide through…
Solar’s Dirty Secret
In 2017 I moved back home to Livingston County after serving seven years in the United States Marine Corps. A father, a veteran, and a millennial, I spent the last…
Notre Dame and the Need for the Past
We know now that much of the Notre Dame Cathedral survived and that it will be rebuilt. But while the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral burned, Americans mourned. They…
The Leased of These
Earlier this year, headlines indicated that an unprecedented number of Americans are more than 90 days behind on their car loan payments. Nearly all economists agree that 7 million Americans defaulting…
Wanderlust Keeps us From Leading Meaningful Lives: Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Stoics
The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he…
Fighting Demons, Liberal and Otherwise
We like to flatter ourselves that we live in extraordinary times. Every four years, for example, we are told that this presidential election is “the most important of our life.” Those of…
Toward a Somewhere Suburb
In his 2017 book The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics, British commentator David Goodhart seeks to understand the recent populist moments that have shaped the…
Found: The Perfect FPR Presidential Candidate!
Over the last several years, our little band over at Solidarity Hall—myself, Susannah Black, Mark Gordon, Matt Cooper, Grace Potts, and a few more—have entertained ourselves by watching various Facebook political…
What Urban Liberals Might Learn From Rural Rebels
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Loka Ashwood, a rural sociologist at Auburn University, visited The Land Institute in Salina, KS, last September, and gave a presentation on her then just-published…
Reading Seed Catalogs for Pleasure and Profit
Gardeners are a modest and sober breed, not much given to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. We are generally free…
Why Heidegger Stayed in the Provinces—and Why it is Not Time for the ‘Robert Penn Warren Option’
In 1934, the philosopher Martin Heidegger, tired of his ill-inclined maneuvering to become the celebrity intellectual who would steer the Nazi Party into greatness, resigned from his rectorate at Freiburg…
American Conservatism, and the Socialist Specter Which Haunts It Still
[Cross-posted to In Media Res] Back in February, Rod Dreher shared with his readers an idea for a new book: to introduce conservative Christians in America to "the warnings that…
The Promise of the Green New Deal
For all its current weaknesses, the GND is an effort to “solve for pattern” as Wendell Berry recommends.
The Original Front Porch
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Front Porch Republic. To honor the occasion, we'll be running a few essays by some of the original Porchers in which they…
Feeding the World from the Bottom Up
It is natural and normal, when looking at big problems, to look for big answers. Problems do not come much bigger than the subject of Eric Holt-Giménez’s new book, whose driving…
The Green New Deal Comes Home
The risks associated with global warming are real, if chronically overstated by many on the left, and the response will require a soberness that is sorely lacking across the political…
What Is Radical Christianity?
This may be a tad tardy, but Jeff Bilbro's write-up and assessment of the conference about Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed caught my eye for several reasons. One was the…
Modest Proposal: Tobacco is Like Love
Among the legion of unjustly forgotten historical figures there’s an eccentric soldier and failed composer named Captain Tobias Hume. Unless you play the viola da gamba or you’re fond of Polish…
Pilgrims Longing for Home
As someone who appreciates the value of place, rootedness, and limitations on my horizon of vision, I’m afflicted with deep sense of unease as to the nature of my own…
Gender is a Social Construct
In Gender, Illich reveals the depth and scope to which capitalist modernity has unsettled family life and relations between men and women in general.
Rock the Block
It is a cloudless July day in Connecticut—the kind of day that keeps people rooted in this place despite its long winters and high taxes. From houses up and down the…
Narrating the Tradition of Liberalism’s Anti-Tradition
Criticizing the current liberal order is a popular activity. Authors such as Patrick Deneen, Rod Dreher, D.C. Schindler, Mark Lilla, Johnathan Haidt, and Jordan Peterson have generated significant conversation through…
