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…

Some Big Capitalists Do It Right

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] From what I can tell, most businesses, once they get to a certain size, cannot avoid be lured into the American conviction that you must expand or die. And, of…

Something About Which Leftists, Localists, and Libertarians (But Perhaps Not Philosophical Liberals) Ought to Agree

[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic ] Senator Rand Paul's filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be head of the CIA --something that he did in order to "draw attention to deep con…