The Editors
Articles by The Editors
“Servile World: How ‘The Big Business Government,’ ‘The Loathsome Thing Called Social Service,’ and Other Distrubutist Nightmares All Came True
In response to my posting on "'A Distributist View of the Global Economic Crisis': A Report," several people asked for more specifics regarding the popssible shape of a contemporary Distributist…
New York Green Fest
If you're lucky enough to be near beautiful Allegany County, New York, over the weekend of August 7-9, drop by Alfred University to check out the New York Green Fest…
Hospitality and the Hopis: Piki
Cincinnati, OH. My oldest son manages a pool for the city recreation department while he’s home from college. It’s a summer job that should be well-suited for him: part schmooze,…
If Cooking Slowly and Growing Organically are In, Why Is Rural Ministry Out?
Any self-respecting Christian should come down a few rungs on his ladder of self-esteem after reading Wendell Berry on the all-too-common view of organized churches toward farms, farmers, and rural…
Turn On, Tune In, Watch TV
Claremont, CA. I am not ashamed to admit it: I like television. I think television is important. I think television is worth watching. Oh, I know all the objections.…
An FPR Symposium: Shop Class as Soul Craft, by Matthew Crawford
During the course of this entire week, FPR will devote its main pages to a symposium on the recent book Shop Class as Soul Craft by Matthew Crawford. The book…
Lessons from a Motorcycle Mechanic
Wichita, KS [Cross-posted at In Medias Res] Let's pause a moment and be grateful that the job market for political theorists is so bad. Because if it wasn't, Matthew Crawford,…
Shop Class and the Romantic Mode of Politics
It goes without saying that Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft is compelling. Discussed on NPR, profiled in The New York Times and The New Yorker, it is attracting attention…
The Oilconomy
Most media outlets have treated the financial crisis as a consequence of Wall Street Gone Wild. However, this New Yorker article suggests - I think rightly - that the world's…
The Whole Hog
Alexandria, VA They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can sometimes tell how the book’s designers wanted the book to be judged at first glance.…
Working with Words
Our relationship was still in its early swoon when Nate came to pick me up from work one night. He was so obviously excited to see me that even my…
Monty Python’s Shop Class
As so often seems to be the case, the Monty Python troop somehow managed to make Matthew Crawford's point about the enduring value of working with your hands decades before…
“A Distributist View of the Global Economic Crisis”: A Report
A conference with this title convened in St. Benet's Hall, Oxford, England, on Saturday, July 11. Organized by the G.K. Chesterton Institute, the great Chestertonian Father Ian Boyd offered greetings…
Sweat of thy Brow
Several years ago I (sarcastically) noted a hot trend in the DC Metropole - the outsourcing of many mundane tasks seen as superfluous and distracting from the busy lifestyles of…
The Daily Yonder
Thanks to FPR reader and my fellow Hoosier Brandon Seitz for pointing us to The Daily Yonder, a webzine dedicated to writing about and analyzing what's going on in rural…
In Other Shops…
Joe Carter weighs in at First Things with a set of challenging reservations about the relevance of Matt Crawford's arguments for a more general audience. He rightly notes that it's…
My Own Little Corner of the Right
Rome, Kentucky. This week my dear Cousin Kate is otherwise occupied Marie Antoinetting around that patch of pigweed and thistle she calls her garden, and has decided not to post…
In Praise of States (and Why There Should be More of Them)
Wichita, KS Over the July 4th weekend, we made a quick trip south to Dallas, and were blessed with a brief look at that particular large chunk of the American…
Against Pets
The tractors came. The horses Stood in the fields, keepsakes, grew old, and died. Or were sold as dogmeat. Our minds received the revolution of engines, our will stretched toward…
An Apology to Our Readers
I must apologize to all our readers and my fellow contributors here for the intrusion of my cousin Cassie Pigeon in a recent post under my byline. I had my extended…
Transgression and the Packaging of Forbidden Knowledge: A Beggar’s Ball with ADD.
Washington, CT. Brains as Brawn have gotten we exiles from the Garden of Eden into a lot of trouble over the years. Though capable of spectacular expressions of beauty and…
Away We’ve Gone
Claremont, CA. When she is six months pregnant with their baby, Verona and her boyfriend Burt almost move to Montreal – because a couple they knew in college lives there.…
The Alternative Tradition in America
Alexandria, VA Since Caleb has posted his lecture from a legendary conference a few years ago that a number of future Front Porchers attended in Charlottesville, VA, I've brushed off…
Broken Connections
"We live on the far side of a broken connection" Wendell Berry has written. One of the greatest obstacles resulting from our current circumstance is our inability to make the…