The Editors
Articles by The Editors
Jimmy Carter, Front Porch Republican
Via The Washington Post, a profile of the quiet, deeply local, exceptionally frugal, profoundly humble life lived by the only actual small-c "conservative" to have been elected President of the…
Redeeming Capitalism is an Uphill Battle
Recently there has been a growing sense that capitalism is at best a mixed blessing. Though the material benefits that accompany its massive wealth creation are real and significant, capitalism…
My Àntonia at One Hundred
Willa Cather is the quintessential novelist of the American prairie. That distinction comes to her first because she spent her formative years on the prairie in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Cather…
Conservation by the Yard
I begin with a proposition adapted from Wendell Berry—namely, that mowing is an ecological act. Mowing extends the perennial drama of photosynthesis and carbon cycling. Too few lawn owners, however,…
Cheese Should Be Dangerous
The cheese crafted here came about as a byproduct of a larger whole, the natural dividend of a complete way of life, and this is the foundation of the best…
Catastrophe, Technology, Limits, and Localism
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Charles C. Mann's The Wizard and the Prophet, published earlier this year, is a fabulous book. Not a perfect book; sometimes, in order to bulk…
Social Isolation as the Fruit of Liberalism
Loneliness is on the rise. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people. Our social media networks may number in the hundreds, even thousands, but it…
A Flexible Disposition
In 2018, to discuss America’s future is to discuss uncertainty. It is true, of course, that talking about the future—a predictive game dependent on chance as much as it is…
The Cost of Knowing One’s Place
The first time you read the novels of Thomas Hardy–especially if you read them as a young adult–you’re likely to get a pretty forceful impression. With the story-telling powers of…
Backyard Beekeeping
I had long resisted adding ten thousand new livestock to our less than two acres. I had listened to beekeepers’ tales of bears and had read enough about varroa mites…
Should You Move?
Charles Mahron has opened up what I think to be a great, even essential, discussion that fans of localism and sustainability and community of every possible stripe ought to have:…
What Do Farmers Want?
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The obvious response to the title of this post is: I don't know; why don't you ask one? Well, Robert Wuthnow and his researchers did,…
Review of Suicide of the West
Jonah Goldberg’s Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy, appearing on Amazon and New York Times bestseller lists, represents…
“Go Talk with Those Who are Rumored to be Unlike You”
On October 2, 2009, the International Olympic Committee met in Denmark to vote on which city would host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Despite President Obama traveling to Copenhagen to lobby…
Naftzger Park, Planning, and the Problem of “Growth”
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Naftzger Memorial Park was a small, pleasantly run-down city block of trees, grass, and benches, near the center of downtown Wichita, KS, just a block…
Sparking Little Platoons
When I became a Washington, D.C. newsroom intern, Twitter usage was mandatory (primarily so that we could help run the magazine’s Twitter account). I neither understood nor liked Twitter at…
Big Other is Watching. Hallelu!
All hail Big Other, in whom we live and move and have our being. All hail Big Other, from whom so many blessings flow. All hail Big Other, than which…
The Irony of Twitter
Several years ago I followed an exchange on Twitter between two academics. Both were lamenting the (in their view) low quality work done by young writers as well as the…
The Reinvention of (a More Localized) America
New in The Atlantic is a long--probably a little too long, but stick with the whole thing; it's worth it--article by journalist James Fallows, "The Reinvention of America." The article…
The Triumph of the Datum
The middle of the twentieth century abounded with writers who simultaneously analyzed their own times and predicted ours: Daniel Bell (The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society), Christopher Lasch (The Culture…
The Theological Need for Mediation: Considerations from Alexis de Tocqueville
During a class I was teaching at our parish last fall, a woman pulled me aside afterwards to ask a question. The woman was visibly upset, with tears running down…
In Praise of the Children’s Choir Accompanist
Every few weeks, in what I assume is a uniquely Protestant ritual, a dozen small children stand at the front of our church and sing for the congregation. A kindly…
What Wendell Berry’s Brush Teaches Us About Capitalism, Community, and “Inevitability”
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings, the latest collection of writings by Wendell Berry, isn't a perfect book, nor the perfect expression of…
From 1948, to 1968, to 2018 (and Beyond?)
A long, thoughtful, well-researched, and theoretically serious piece of historical reflection has just appeared in The Atlantic, one which examines the fate of liberalism in post-WWII America--though not so much…