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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

What Do Farmers Want?

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The obvious response to the title of this post is: I don't know; why don't you ask one? Well, Robert Wuthnow and his researchers did,…

Naftzger Park, Planning, and the Problem of “Growth”

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Naftzger Memorial Park was a small, pleasantly run-down city block of trees, grass, and benches, near the center of downtown Wichita, KS, just a block…

The Reinvention of (a More Localized) America

New in The Atlantic is a long--probably a little too long, but stick with the whole thing; it's worth it--article by journalist James Fallows, "The Reinvention of America." The article…
April 27, 2018

What Wendell Berry’s Brush Teaches Us About Capitalism, Community, and “Inevitability”

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings, the latest collection of writings by Wendell Berry, isn't a perfect book, nor the perfect expression of…

From 1948, to 1968, to 2018 (and Beyond?)

A long, thoughtful, well-researched, and theoretically serious piece of historical reflection has just appeared in The Atlantic, one which examines the fate of liberalism in post-WWII America--though not so much…
April 7, 2018

An Invitation to Caleb’s Porch

Those of us who have been around Front Porch republican for a while will remember the trenchant, funny and (in my opinion) only occasionally incorrect musings of Caleb Stegall, Esquire.…
April 4, 2018

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