Thoughts on Elshtain

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] Jean Bethke Elshtain, a profound and important political theorist and ethicist, died yesterday I was lucky enough to have met her perhaps a handful of times, …

Pondering St. Francisville, Gilead, and our Stories of Place

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] Jeremy Beer's recent review of The Little Way of Ruthie Leming leads me to once again reflect upon Rod Dreher's excellent book (about which I've …

Some Summertime (and Hopefully Sabbatical-Worthy) Speculations on Cities

That's Wichita, KS , right there, the city which has been our family's home since 2006 and will, quite possibly, remain our home until Melissa and I shuffle off to a better world. It's a …

The Problem of Undertheorized Agrarianism in Most Actually Argued Localism

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] That's a terrible title for this post, I know. But hopefully it'll make sense, if you actually make it to the end. First of all, if any reader of this …

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

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] Mark Mitchell's fine and thoughtful book is filled with excellent insights and challenges, which unfortunately do not, in my judgment, quite achieve what …

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

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] 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 was a…