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Articles 356

Noticing Birds

We don’t have to escape to a new and better location with more perfect neighbors. We need to lovingly attend to the ones we have.
January 29, 2020

How Farms Differ From Factories

For farming to exist sustainably, even from an economic perspective, it must be re-imagined.

Journeys in Trump Country

More interesting than the big-name hits and misses, though, are the everyday but often extraordinary people that she meets along the way. Some are firmly in the Trump camp; some…

On Being Kind

If it keeps us from flying at each other’s throats, I’ll take kindness every time. But if we seek more than survival, kindness is just the beginning.
January 23, 2020

Love Is Its Own Justification: Wendell Berry and the Lure of Political Efficacy

Scialabba insists that our actions are meritorious and good if they are effective, if they transform society and lead to measurable improvements. Berry, on the other hand, upholds love as…
Jeffrey Bilbro
January 21, 2020

Adjuncts, Mechanics, The Overclass, and Class War

Something has gone seriously wrong, and no one seems to have any idea how to fix it—including, alas, Michael Lind.

When Protestants Became Libertarians

Protestants and American Conservatism reveals a capacious knowledge of American religious history. As skeptics of the liberal order slowly work out a positive vision for the republic, they now know…

In Memoriam: Roger Scruton, 1944-2020

“The real wealth of a country … does not reside in the hectic exchanges on the stock market or the rivers of commodities that flow through every household without belonging…
January 14, 2020

Early-Alerting Early-Alert Systems on College Campuses

The university’s best, most utopian aims must not beget dystopian early-alert policies that infringe on students’ personal liberties while turning campus into a place where everyone is an informant, and…

The Knight of Faith: Franz Jägerstätter’s Hidden Life

In the midst of whatever trials come to us and whatever revelations do not, we are still called to serve, to do good, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.…
January 10, 2020

Tropical Fruits of the Lower Midwest

The maypop shows, however, that localism need not mean confining oneself to an austere and moralistic diet. If I cannot grow bananas and mangoes in the Ozarks, I can nonetheless…

Recapturing the Real: Physicality, Imitation, and Tradition in a Digital World

Our educational approach should include the validation of physicality, the imitation of the master, and the celebration of tradition.

Online Learning Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

There is certainly a place for online learning in undergraduate education, but we should not undercut traditional higher education for the sake of innovation or profit margin.

The Midwest: A Place with a History and a Future

In sum, Finding a New Midwestern History is an exemplary compilation of historical interpretations both renewed and new. The enthusiasms of Garland, Wright, and Turner—registered a century and a quarter…
January 1, 2020

Footsteps on a Generational Housetop

It may be that only in coming face to face with a world where gifts are truly needed can children discover the Earth as authored by something—or someone—greater than their…

Waiting, Seeing, and Receiving

Advent is a reminder that God has not forgotten—that He is faithful to His promises, that we're not left to our own devices, that he hears and knows.
December 27, 2019

And To All A Good Night

Too soon the mistletoe will be a garland.
Jason Peters
December 25, 2019

It’s a Wonderful Film

It wasn’t enough for George to stay in Bedford Falls and do the right thing; he needed to choose which values to embrace and which to reject.
December 23, 2019

Language and Power

"We wade through a torrent of words and images every day, and yet we mostly lack a clear understanding of what language is and can be for the human..."
December 20, 2019

Blessed With Triple Ds: A Dispatch from Dumb-Ass Acres

This is a description of small-town life and the help you can expect to receive from people not conditioned to give strangers the finger.
Jason Peters
December 18, 2019

Guinea Fowl

Better dumb guineas than no guineas at all.

Reading Reality (and Watching for Bric-à-Brac on Our Windowsill)

Christian monastic pioneers saw that books left on the windowsill are more likely to make an impression on those outside than on those within.

The Dirt on Resilience

I have come down with a severe case of confirmation bias. I count myself as one of those who believe that contact with the earth is a good thing. In…
December 12, 2019

Pancakes with My Father

My father cried the day his stroke began, as he lay in the emergency ward, watching himself lose his speech and his strength. He cried the day after the stroke…
December 11, 2019