Short 494
A Localist Revolution, Aldo Leopold’s Conservatism, and Public Intellectuals
“The Localist Revolution.” David Brooks writes in defense of localism: “We’ve tried liberalism and conservatism and now we’re trying populism. Maybe the next era of public life will be defined…
Baseball, Debt, and Postman
“Birds, Bricklayers, and Baseball.” Sam Edgin reviews Stanley Hauerwas’s new book, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson, which is comprised of 16 letters, each written on subsequent anniversaries…
Register for our Fall Conference
Registration for our fall conference, 1968 Fifty Years Later: A Re-Evaluation, is now open. We hope you can join us. For more information on the location and lodging, go to…
The Contemplative Life, Southern Writers, and a Tech Backlash
“Review: A Trappist monk tells of a life worth living.” Gregory Hillis reviews a new book by Brother Paul Quenon, a monk who began his life at the Abbey of…
Should You Move?
Charles Mahron has opened up what I think to be a great, even essential, discussion that fans of localism and sustainability and community of every possible stripe ought to have:…
Agroecology, Eric Miller, and Manual Labor
“Bringing Farming Back to Nature.” Daniel Moss and Mark Bittman report on the encouraging growth of agroecology. (Recommended by Tom Bilbro.) “The Oak Tree Almanac.” This is a new podcast…
Anthony Bourdain, the Galloping Gourmet, and Reading Together
“Flourishing in a Digital World.” John Fea records a live episode of The Way of Improvement Leads Home podcast. Near the end, the conversation turns to FPR’s recent localist social…
R. S. Thomas, Paul Kingsnorth, and Monsanto’s “Demise”
“Poetic Orthodoxy.” Peter Leithart writes about the faith and the conflicted attachment to Wales that animate R. S. Thomas’s poems. “Why ‘Monsanto’ is No More.” Don’t get your hopes up.…
Habermas on the Public Square, Polarization, and Kernza
“Carmen.” Stromae has a music video that’s relevant to our recent conversation about localist social media. Here’s what I want to know: What might happen if the Big Blue Bird…
Disenchantment, Facebookistan, and John Ruskin
“Disenchantment, Actually.” Doug Sikkema reviews The Myth of Dis enchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences by Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm. He’s not entirely convinced: “Yes, religion and…
Deneen and Kauffman, Walker Percy, and Manufactured Rituals
“Wendell Berry’s Works are a Multi-Plattered Feast.” Nick Offerman praises Wendell Berry’s writing: Here in these stories, you will find a great entertainment. Laced throughout, however, will also be a…
Talking about Wendell Berry on Twitter
Matt Stewart hasn't convinced everyone, and we'll be running further responses to his piece over the next couple of weeks--including essays from those who agree with him and those who,…
A Wendell Berry Weekend, Stanley Hauerwas, and Russell Kirk’s Correspondence
“Huppert Dairy among Hundreds Selling Out.” Boyd Huppert mourns a loss that is both personal and cultural: “The upper Midwest has been losing dairy farms at a rate once unimaginable.…
Rural Kansas, Moby-Dick, and Online “Community”
“The Tweeting of the Lambs: A Day in the Life of a Modern Shepherd.” Sam Knight profiles James Rebanks, a shepherd in England’s Lake District and the author of The…
Nick Offerman, Alan Jacobs, and Robert Farrar Capon
“Five Questions with Nick Offerman about Wendell Berry.” Nick Offerman talks about Look & See, which aired on PBS this week. “Remembering the ‘Spooky Wisdom’ of Our Agrarian Past.” Gracy…
The Reinvention of (a More Localized) America
New in The Atlantic is a long--probably a little too long, but stick with the whole thing; it's worth it--article by journalist James Fallows, "The Reinvention of America." The article…
Dirt, Manners, and Patrick McManus
“Can Dirt Save the Earth?” Moises Velasquez-Manoff’s long essay is worth reading. A taste: “If you focus on the health of the soil and not on yield, eventually you come…
Localism in the New York Times, Wendell Berry on Dairy Farmers, and More
“Trump’s Enemy is Not Your Friend: Why We Shouldn’t Defend Amazon.” Thomas Frank doesn’t like the false dichotomy that Trump’s recent attacks on Amazon seem to pose. Do we really…
From 1948, to 1968, to 2018 (and Beyond?)
A long, thoughtful, well-researched, and theoretically serious piece of historical reflection has just appeared in The Atlantic, one which examines the fate of liberalism in post-WWII America--though not so much…
University Press of Kentucky, Group Think, the Farm Bill, and more
“An Open Letter.” The bad news is that the University Press of Kentucky lost some of their funding in the new state budget. The good news is that UK and…
An Invitation to Caleb’s Porch
Those of us who have been around Front Porch republican for a while will remember the trenchant, funny and (in my opinion) only occasionally incorrect musings of Caleb Stegall, Esquire.…
Baseball, Liberty Hyde Bailey, and more
“Quit Trying to ‘Fix’ Baseball: Its Leisurely Pace Is Just What Our Society Needs.” Gregory Hillis tells Rob Manfred (and the rest of us) that we need what baseball offers:…
Convenience, Digitized Childhood, Hunters, and more
“Make Communities Great Again.” James Bruce argues the federal government should adopt policies that would strengthen local communities. “The Tyranny of Convenience.” Tim Wu writes about how our quest for…
Tanya Berry, Bitcoin, Technology, and more
“Staying Human: The Tech Issue.” Plough Quarterly has a new issue on technology with several thoughtful essays. My favorite is Susannah Black’s profile of Jack and Amy Baumgartner, “The Perfect…