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The Stump

More Articles in The Stump

Breaking our Concentration: Lessons from Jefferson, Hamilton, and Lincoln on Local Economies

Lincoln wishes to promote Jeffersonian virtues by Hamiltonian means. In a Jeffersonian vein, Lincoln wants to encourage small, independent operations that free people from dependence on “the man.”
May 28, 2021

Civilization, Escape, or Community: Revisiting Into the Wild with Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry pleads with us to see that true joy and fulfillment— the very motivations at the heart of Huck Finn and Christopher McCandless—are to be found not in escape and isolation,…

Organized Leisure and the Construction of American Community 

Was the experience of “community” in an Ohio town during Ervin’s lifetime fundamentally more compelling and authentic than has been possible after the post-war economic boom? Or should Ervin’s passion for organizing…

Don’t Cancel My Bandsaw: A Parable

Our disagreements are about real things, but people are real too.
May 7, 2021

Let us Feast!

Time and time again, in both mythic and recorded history, humans have celebrated the passing of a hardship by gathering together in merriment with good food and drink and song.

The Paradox of American Places

Daniel Elazar was emphatic that a “renewed sense of localism” was essential to America’s future. For Americans, this means renewed intentionality about our local communities, not merely living in one place for…
April 21, 2021

Self-Government Starts at the Front Porch

Rugged individualists need not be atomists; and there are compelling reasons why even Enlightenment liberals should be front porch republicans.
April 16, 2021

Calvino’s Leonia and the Weight of History

The conservationist recognizes that the society we live in, as much as the natural world we live in, was given to us as a gift with the demand that we pass it…
April 8, 2021

Cesar’s Circus

The purpose of politics is to accrue power. Chavez knew this reality, and perhaps his funeral was his last, best opportunity to control the stage and direct the players.
March 31, 2021

Should We Begin To Reconnect?

Add the past year on to this already disturbing trend, and such destructive realities have only been further exacerbated. The need for human sociality is not a deficiency, nor is it something…
March 30, 2021

When Innovation Runs Out: The Vindication of Maintenance

The Innovation Delusion goes a long way toward demystifying and destigmatizing the ordinary yet essential work of maintenance.

The Professor and the Madman: Cancel Culture, Consequences, and Restorative Justice

Our society may sometimes be divided on how to define right and wrong, but that has not dampened enthusiasm for identifying wrongdoing.
March 25, 2021
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