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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

Tending to One’s Garden

Two lives, well-lived, in environments well and lovingly (dis)ordered. In the end, whether it be Monty Don walking through his gardens, or the late Umberto Eco walking past his shelves…
May 25, 2020

Thinking about the Post-Pandemic (and, Maybe, the Post-Suburban) Neighborhood

Chuck Marohn's work, whatever disagreements one may have with it, gives us some good counsel on where to start changing suburban-addicted minds and fiscal incentives.

The Next City: A Workshop

On Tuesday, May 5, at 1pm EST, Solidarity Hall and Strong Towns will present a live 90-minute Zoom video session, titled "The Next City," during which Strong Towns president Chuck…

Cities, Common Spaces, and the Coronavirus

To be isolated from one another, and in particular from those third places where the rich possibilities of community are most regularly realized strains urban interdependence as nothing else.

Power, Friendship, and a Better Set of Democratic “Rules”

For those tired of the fake news and play hate, who are convinced by Austin and their own better natures that accomplishing something better is actually still possible within the…

The Localist Theory of Charles Marohn’s Wonderfully Practical Strong Towns

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This past weekend, I took a group of students up to the annual Prairie Festival at The Land Institute in Salina, KS. I do this…
September 30, 2019

Climate Change, Dirty Hands, and the Grace (and Hope) of Limits

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Paul Schrader, the famed screenwriter and director, does not make subtle films. His latest movie, First Reformed--the story of a depressed, emotionally exhausted, and ultimately…

The Wonderfully (if Perhaps Insufficiently) Radical Bill McKibben

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] I've been a fan of Bill McKibben's writings for close to 30 years. That doesn't mean I've agreed with, or even enjoyed, everything this endlessly…

“Who’s going to take care of these people?”

This is a sad and beautifully written portrait of a hospital in rural Oklahoma shutting down, perhaps to be re-opened, but probably for good. It is, of course, implicitly a…
May 12, 2019

Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A week ago I was able to organize a small group of friends to attend a fine, relatively intimate event at Sterling College, a small…

What Urban Liberals Might Learn From Rural Rebels

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Loka Ashwood, a rural sociologist at Auburn University, visited The Land Institute in Salina, KS, last September, and gave a presentation on her then just-published…

American Conservatism, and the Socialist Specter Which Haunts It Still

[Cross-posted to In Media Res] Back in February, Rod Dreher shared with his readers an idea for a new book: to introduce conservative Christians in America to "the warnings that…