James Matthew Wilson
James Matthew Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Augustinian Traditions at Villanova University.
Articles by James Matthew Wilson
Donald Hall and the Unsettling of American Letters
When Donald Hall passed away last week the obituary in his local New Hampshire newspaper made clear what an exceptional and instructive life he had lived, one stirring in its…
Joyless Moderns
The modern age, in almost every detail, began with the flat rejection of joy. And the modern condition consists in alternately lamenting that there is nothing in which to take…
A Rebirth of Midwestern Regionalism
My review of an important new book by the midwestern historian, Jon K. Lauck, appears in the new issue of National Review. I'll have more to say on western and southern…
The Triumph of “Buchananism”
Although President-Elect Donald Trump may have been insincere, when he insisted that he was only the "messenger" and not the personal cause of his sudden rise to political prominence over…
The United Kingdom Votes “Localism”
When Front Porch Republic came into the world seven years ago, it did so largely on the strength of an intuition. Everyone was weary of "bigness." The financial collapse triggered by the…
In the Pilsen Snow
My wife and I were married at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, on the near west side of South Bend, Indiana. I’ve written about her before, that Church, fashioned nearly two…
An Age of Unmaking
Over the years, I have made the case, here and elsewhere, for the recovery of the traditional work of poetry. The habits of mind and body that we cultivate and…
New Author Site and Archive
Somewhere between three and seven readers of FPR will be pleased to hear that I have launched a new website that serves to archive publications from various magazines and journals,…
The Mythology of an Anti-Christian Bigot
Though far, in its main argument, from the central concerns of the Porch, some readers may be interested in my account of mythos and the nature of culture as an…
The True Conservative
Writes Pat Buchanan of his work these last ten years: Our agenda in that decade was—stay out of wars that are not our business, economic patriotism, secure borders, and America…
The Trouble with Limits
Modern persons have a problem with limits, three in fact. They want every good thing to be unlimitedly available for their desires, and scarcity is taken for a cause of…
The Parish and the Papacy
This is the fourth of a five-part series of essays on "Localism and the Universal Church." You may find the previous installments here. As I was saying . . .…