Articles 356
On Feeling “Forgotten”: Agrarian Aspirations in the Andes
“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” The villagers of Pomatambo, Ayacucho, Peru, did not coin the phrase, though it has captured their lives with eerie precision…
Nomen est Omen
Henry County, Kentucky. If your name is your fate, what does the future hold for Rylynn Shikaela Novaleigh? There she is in the paper, age one, wrapped in the…
“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…
Cleanup in Pew 16
I have just returned from two weeks in England, were I was more or less out of touch with the internet. The occasion was a conference at the University of…
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.…
Of Games, Gadgets, and God
Coeur d'Alene, ID. One evening our family and two cousins were playing Uno. It’s a simple game requiring nothing more than a deck of Uno cards. We’ve played this game…
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,…
Dirty Hands, Clean Mind
Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. As I read Matt Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft, I thought often of Simone Weil, that young champion of the workers of the world who took it…
The Tacit Dimension of Shop Class
Kearneysville, WV. Whenever I pick up a book dealing with ways of knowing, I invariably flip to the index to see if the author refers to the work of Michael…
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 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.…
Recognition and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Matt Crawford is a good friend of mine, and I read and commented on early drafts of Shop Class as Soulcraft, and so I don’t have much in the way…
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…
A Certified Deep Thinker
I don’t like machines. I find them dirty, confusing and, even worse, boring. I also don’t much enjoy working with my hands. I like reading books and telling people, in…
Gumbo as Soul Craft
When I read “Shop Class As Soulcraft,” I initially felt like a twerp. I’m the guy who was raised in the country by a father who tried to teach him…
“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…
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…
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…
No Angel: Second Thoughts on Sarah Palin
East Lansing, MI. Mark Mitchell's brief essay on Sarah Palin reminded me of a Treasonous Clerk installment I wrote back in November, contemplating the significance of Palin's persona for American…
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…
