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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

Learning from The Left Behind

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Robert Wuthnow's new book, The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America, is the best book I've read on the rural-urban divide in the…

Good News and Bad News

As always, the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. On the good side of the ledger, the facts seem incontrovertible: more and more people riding bikes when they decide…
February 28, 2018

Prairie Fires and Prairie Romances

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Caroline Fraser's wonderful Prairie Fires is many things. Primarily it's a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the justly famous Little House books, and…

Urban Questions (and Responses) for Krugman

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Over a month ago, Paul Krugman used his space at The New York Times to ask "what, in the modern economy, are small cities even…
February 12, 2018

On Dreher’s Benedict Option, the Christians and Localists Who Can Live It, and the Ones Who Can’t

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Rod Dreher and I aren't close friends, but like many Front Porch Regulars, I've been blessed with the opportunity to associate with and learn from…
March 7, 2017

After Trump #2: Getting Populism Right

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Coming to grips with what the 2016 election means many things, especially for those of us who are hoping to find in Trump's victory a…
December 28, 2016

After Trump #1: Getting Urbanists and Localists Together

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] So at the beginning of the month, when I finally got my election reflections out of my system, I concluded by re-iterating what I said…
December 26, 2016

Elections Reflections, 2016 (Part 2)

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Yes, I know the election was a month ago. What can I say; I needed time to recover from getting everything entirely wrong, didn't I?…
December 6, 2016

Election Reflections, 2016 (Part 1)

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] With the exception of one big think piece on our almost-certainly-soon-to-be-POTUS, Hillary Clinton, I've been quiet this presidential election. I think that's because, in the…
November 7, 2016

Hillary’s Communitarian Moment, and Ours

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Thirteen months ago, I wrote a blog post that provided a retrospective on a body of ideas on the 20th anniversary of the greatest level…
October 11, 2016

At Least His Priorities Are in the Right Place

From The Telegraph: Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, attended a meeting of his local allotment association on Sunday despite the resignation of most of his shadow cabinet. With the mounting…
July 7, 2016

Ten Theses on Our Populist Moment

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Tomorrow, with the California Democratic primary, the populist developments that so many have observed in this electoral cycle will definitively change. Either Sanders will prevail…
June 6, 2016