Patrick Deneen
Patrick J. Deneen teaches political theory at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of several books, most recently Why Liberalism Failed.
Articles by Patrick Deneen
FPR v. PoMoCon, Part Deux
Some heat and even some light have been generated in the numerous comments that followed upon my original posting in which I threw some gauntlets around. However, some inevitable reductionism…
Robert Nisbet’s Quest
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 …
An Actually Interesting Debate
Most of the debates within the "conservative" wing today are yawners. They pit one brand of worn-out "conservatism" against another (often with the assistance of screeds on talk radio), with…
Necessity and Virtue
A fascinating article in today's Washington Post confirms the old adage that there's always a bull market somewhere: right now, namely, in the seed selling business. The article notes that…
Against the Environment
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…
The Blessings of Pesticides
I learned tonight, courtesy of American Media's Marketplace, that there is a letter-writing campaign currently afoot protesting the organic garden that was planted and is tended by Mrs. Obama. The…
Against (Gay) Marriage
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…
Shop Class as Radio Show
Matthew Crawford - political philosopher and motorcycle repairman - has published an important new book entitled Shop Class as Soul Craft. The book has already been exerpted in the New…
Scruton’s Challenge
Authors and readers of FPR should spend some time reading this extraordinary essay by Roger Scruton, from the most recent issue of Intercollegiate Review. Scruton is that rarest of academic…
What Is to be Done?
On Amtrak Regional Train 130 Daniel Larison has written a number of related postings here (and here) and elsewhere that have insistently raised and sought to answer the question: what…
Go Home, Young Person
Jeremy Beer has masterfully articulated the ideology of meritocracy and the destruction it wreaks upon the small towns and non-major cities of the nation. Still, a number of sympathetic readers…
An Unholy Alliance
At "Minding the Campus," there's an essay by ME that touches on the implicit similarities between our technocratic administrative class and our post-modern radical professoriate. For all their differences they…