Region & Place 427

The conversation between Rusty Reno, Jody Bottum, and Caleb Stegall prompted me to revisit a recent post from "What I Saw In America" in response to a reader reply who…

Joe Carter, managing editor of First Things, has been gracious enough to put up with my jokes at his boss's expense, so forthwith, I offer the following as the more…

Wichita, KS In honor of Canada Day, in the fine federation (though these days, in the eyes of a majority of Canadians, less a federation than an Americanized nation, or…

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY--Here comes the Fourth, and instead of asking why Americans revolted against remote authority in 1776 yet countenance it today, let us now praise picnics and beer and…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS Blogger though I am, I can't deny that there is a major advantage to arguments conducted through the slower media of paper (to…

Let it not be said that FPR indiscriminately supports "localism." I believe that all my compatriots here would agree that this is one "locality" that cannot be defended. Maybe that's…

Seattle, WA Robert Nisbet's 1953 book The Quest for Community has rightfully achieved that rare and estimable status of "classic."     What Nisbet saw more clearly than most of his contemporaries …

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.  My review of Richard Quinney's Of Time and Place, originally published in the University Bookman: The American experience has always existed in tension with, if not outright…

Democratizing eighth-grade algebra promotes social justice. (Brookings Institution) Money, mechanization, algebra. The three monsters of contemporary civilization. Complete analogy. (Simone Weil) Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. There are a lot of conspiracy…

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY---The Muckdogs open tonight against the cursed Auburn Doubledays. It's seventy years now that we've had a professional baseball team in Batavia, and no one knows more about…

DENVER, COLORADO. It seems like only yesterday that the New Urbanism was really new. But this weekend, with its annual meeting here in Denver, the Congress for the New Urbanism…

Wichita, KS [Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Michael Sandel's giving of the prestigious Reith Lectures for the BBC (hat tip: the ever-watchful Harry Brighouse at Crooked Timber) has prompted me…

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is probably the most popular center-left leader in the world, with an approval rating hovering near 75 percent. Elected in 2007, Rudd is more popular…

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY---"Here comes the summer!" as the Undertones rejoiced. The Muckdogs' home opener is next Friday, and two days later the sun makes the season official. In preparation, today I checked…

Readers of FPR will be readily forgiven if they have yet to reserve any time this year to celebrate the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. (If you are tempted,…

Alexandria, VA The other night I happened to catch the second half of an ABC special program, "Earth 2100."  The program was a "speculative history" of what the world might…

Claremont, CA.   Becka flew into my office, so excited that she was out of breath. "Professor," she asked, "have you heard about freedom?" I couldn't help laughing. "Why yes, Becka,"…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, Kansas We feared that we'd missed out on fresh strawberries this year, both because there was an early April freeze and snowstorm that killed…

Alexandria, VA Andrew Cherlin - the Benjamin H. Griswold III Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University - has written an important new book on marriage in…

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.  "Community" is a recurring word and theme on this stoop, but it's invocation can come in many undesirable forms: as a talisman against perceived ills; as a marketing device appealing…

Cold Spring, NY. Leopold Kohr, the author of the great classic, The Breakdown of  Nations, once said that his approach to the world--in favor of smaller nations, smaller institutions, smaller…

Claremont, CA. Outside of Los Angeles County, few people have heard about the latest dangerous idea in public education. Two local public school districts have adopted a "legacy admissions" policy.…

  Henry County, Kentucky.  Every Memorial Day my husband takes our children to visit three cemeteries in our county.  We take grass from the family farm for a great-grandfather, rhubarb for…

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY--One of the precious and few political campaigns in recent years to embody Front Porch (or, rather, front stoop) principles was Norman Mailer's 1969 candidacy for mayor of…