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Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox is a Front Porch Republic Contributing Editor. He grew up milking cows and baling hay in Spokane Valley, WA, but now lives in Wichita, KS, where he runs the History & Politics and the Honors programs at Friends University, a small Christian liberal arts college. He aspires to write a book about the theory and practice of democracy, community, and environmental sustainability in small to mid-sized cities, like the one he has made his and his family’s home; his scribblings pertaining to that and related subjects are collected at the Substack “Wichita and the Mittelpolitan.” He also blogs–irregularly and usually at too-great a length–more broadly about politics, philosophy, religion, socialism, bicycling, books, farming, pop music, and whatever else strikes his fancy, at “In Medias Res.”

Articles by Russell Arben Fox

Mark Mitchell’s Politics of Gratitude (Theoretical and Otherwise)

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] To continue with the excellent discussion begun by R.J. Snell, Mark Mitchell's fine and thoughtful book is filled with important insights and challenges, which do…
April 18, 2013

Some Big Capitalists Do It Right

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] From what I can tell, most businesses, once they get to a certain size, cannot avoid be lured into the American conviction that you must…
April 8, 2013

Ruthie Leming’s (and Rod Dreher’s) Little Way

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Rod Dreher's 2006 manifesto, Crunchy Cons, was an inspiration (and provocation) to many, on both the left and the right. It wasn't that the book…
April 8, 2013

Something About Which Leftists, Localists, and Libertarians (But Probably Not Philosophical Liberals) Ought to Agree

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Senator Rand Paul's filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be head of the CIA--something that he did in order to "draw attention to…
March 7, 2013

Glenn Beck Gives Utopia a Bad Name

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] So Glenn Beck has proposed his grandest scheme yet: the construction of separate planned community, literally built around (in terms of architecture and overall design)…
January 15, 2013

Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and the Ground on Which Communities Are Built

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The final sentence in Behind the Beautiful Forevers--Katherine Boo's wonderfully written, devastatingly detailed narrative of several fascinating, despairing stories that took place over the period…
January 7, 2013

Conservative Wisdom from an Original Radical

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Last Friday, Tom Hayden, co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society, principal author of 1962's Port Huron Statement (or, if you Big Lebowski fans…
December 10, 2012

What Was High School For Anyway?

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Twenty-five years ago today (I think; my memory is far from perfect) I graduated from Central Valley High School in Spokane Valley (then "Veradale"), WA.…
June 12, 2012

Creative Destruction and its Benefits, China-Style

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A few weeks ago I was visited by a fellow Wichita resident who was thinking about getting into politics. We talked for a while about…
June 5, 2012

Getting the Garden Going, One Baby-Step at a Time

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This academic year Friends University found itself wondering what to do with a plot of land, directly beside and behind some student dormitories. Through a…

Wes Jackson, Localism, and the Carbon-Based Community

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A couple of days ago, I had the lucky opportunity to listen up close to Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute here in Kansas,…
March 8, 2012

Saul Alinsky, Localist

Well no, not exactly. But as anyone who has ACTUALLY READ ALINSKY KNOWS--in contrast to those who simply parrot his name as part of rather stretched smear of anyone they…
January 26, 2012