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Region & Place 430

The Bombadil Option

Manchester, CT “Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the…
November 13, 2014

Oneself as Another in the Controlled Burn: A Dispatch

Low flames and smoke and visions of the eschaton.
Jason Peters
November 12, 2014

The Monday Morning Brass Spittoon: Roundtable on the Elections

While most of our writers are self-described conservatives, FPR has been, for the most part, a non-partisan enterprise. This is in no small part due to our shared conviction that…
Jeff Polet
November 3, 2014

Conservatism, Localism, and the Mittelpolitan Problem

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This morning, I completed a series of lectures and discussions with a local civic group here in Wichita. The topic for this morning was the…
October 30, 2014

What Will $100 Million Buy You?

When $100 million is being spent on the governor and senate campaigns in their state, Michiganders might want to sit up and take notice.
Jeff Polet
October 30, 2014

Patriotism in Little

Louisville, Kentucky.  One of the things I found on moving home to Kentucky 22 years ago is that our love of country is a very little and very local thing.…
Katherine Dalton
October 24, 2014

Smitten With The Mitten: Beer in SW Michigan

Holland, MI Most “beer ranking lists” have Michigan somewhere in the top 5 of best beer states. I don’t need a list to tell me that I already know Michigan…
Jeff Polet
October 23, 2014

The Little Way of Raymond Chandler

Or, "Shaken and Stirred: The Cosmopolitan, the City, and the Regime of God" Queens, NY The following essay was presented at FPR's annual conference in Louisville on September 27. What…

City Liberty, Country Liberty

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] It's clear to me that one of the primary things people (in the United States, certainly, but also elsewhere) think about when trying to understand…
October 3, 2014

Seeing Our (Non-Cosmopolitan) Selves

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Some years ago, some of the folks behind F5, an alternative weekly newspaper here in Wichita, started a different (and, as it turned out, short-lived)…
September 29, 2014

What Would the Father of Nationalism Say About Scottish Independence?

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] On Thursday, voters in Scotland will go to the polls and either choose "Yes," meaning that they want Scotland to become an independent state, or…
September 16, 2014

From the Fire back into the Pan

Hillsdale, Michigan. Three years ago or so when the missus and I moved to Michigan from Philadelphia, we wondered how we would manage. Not only is the state's economy at…
August 21, 2014

Something’s Fishy–But Not Very–At Dinnertime

Ingham County, MI As darkness falls upon what a friend of mine charitably calls “Jack-Ass Acres,” and as the promise of rain comes with the moving clouds at the end…
Jason Peters
July 23, 2014

Place and the Role of Planning

[This post is adapted with permission from “The Space Was Ours Before We Were the Place’s,” an essay in the anthology Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in…

Trust, Community Ties, and Letting Your Children Play

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The story has exploded all over the internet : Debra Harrell, a Georgia woman, dropped her 9-year-old child off at a park–not an isolated and…
July 16, 2014

The Dumb Ass Suffers a Cardio-Semantic Arrest

It’s the Big One. Tell the kids I love them. Wait at least a week to remarry.
Jason Peters
July 16, 2014

Architecture and Urbanism: Traditional vs. Modern

[This post is adapted with permission from “Metaphysical Realism, Modernity, and Traditional Cultures of Building,” an essay in the anthology Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern…

Four Words to Change the World

Situate the preference where it is, not where it isn’t.
Jason Peters
July 9, 2014

An Alternative to Cosmopolitanism

[This post is adapted with permission from “Making Places: The Cosmopolitan Temptation,” an essay in the anthology Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America, edited by…
Mark T. Mitchell
July 7, 2014

Who Knew Independence Could Be This Easy?

Hillsdale, Michigan: While Americans are gearing up for fireworks, automobile sales, and burnt hot dogs, the Scots are debating whether to declare their independence from the United Kingdom.   It…
July 3, 2014

Fences, Vines, Bees, and Huge Chickens

Hidden Springs Lane. We’re building fence this summer. I purchased 150 eight foot posts and we’ve been slowly planting them. We’re putting a paddock in the front and a larger…
Mark T. Mitchell
June 22, 2014

Roots Along the River

Historically, the locals have called Pompaples, Switzerland the “milieu du monde.” Not to be confused as a claim about its importance as a cultural or political influence, the title refers…

Whisky Tales

In a full bottle of whisky are all the aspirations of mankind, and in an empty one are all the failures of man. Mike Drury As we emerge into adulthood,…
Jeff Polet
May 29, 2014

Public Schools, Local Schools, Family Schools

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Yesterday was the final day of the school year at Peterson Elementary School, the public school which three of our four daughters have attended. It…
May 23, 2014