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Localism in the Mass Age: A Front Porch Republic Manifesto
In the United States the conventional left/right distinction has become increasingly irrelevant, if not harmful. The reigning political, cultural, and economic visions of both the Democrats and the Republicans have reached obvious dead ends. Liberalism, with its hostility to any limits, is collapsing. So-called Conservatism has abandoned all pretense of conserving anything at all. Both dominant parties seem fundamentally incapable of offering coherent solutions for the problems that beset us. In light of this intellectual, cultural, and political stalemate, there is a need for a new vision.
Localism in the Mass A Front Porch Republic Manifesto assembles thirty-one essays by a variety of scholars and practitioners--associated with Front Porch Republic--seeking to articulate a new vision for a better future. The writers are convinced that human apprehension of the true, the good, and the beautiful is best realized within a dense web of meaningful family, neighborhood, and community relationships. These writers seek to advance human flourishing through the promotion of political decentralism, economic localism, and cultural regionalism. In short, Front Porch Republic is dedicated to renewing American culture by fostering the ideals necessary for strong communities.
"Why reorient our lives toward local communities, economies, farmlands and forests? Because that's where you can be a citizen rather than a consumer, where you can see a need and help to meet it, where kinfolk might gather not just to visit but to live, where flesh-and-blood neighbors can offer one another aid and companionship, where public officials must answer for their actions, where you can grow food when the trucks stop rolling, where sun and wind offer free energy, and where you can protect and restore a piece of Earth. If anything in that list appeals to you, then you'll be stirred by this book--a bold reimagining of our lives and our places."
--Scott Russell Sanders, author of Staying Making a Home in a Restless World and other books
"If each of these essays is a gem--and it is--then coming upon them all in one place is what it must feel like to come upon a streak of emerald in a layer of shale. To find them embedded in one place, in a manifesto that is a paean to place itself, is a sight, and a site, for hope. Singly, they bring us--with equal parts humor, humility, and gravitas--to new vantage points from which to glimpse tantalizing glints of an alternative to today's creed of greed and gain. Together, they construct a non-military equivalent of a phalanx--with equal parts criticism, common sense, and ideals--against destruction of the particular local places and bonds that give us our lives. Only such patient words and intricately argued bridge-building can help us withstand the ravages of expansion without limits, exploitation without renewal, and social and political polarization without thoughts of perpetuity."
--Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Syracuse University, author of Race How Racial Etiquette, Sensitivity Training, and New Age Therapy Hijacked the Civil Rights Revolution
Mark Mitchell is Professor and chairman of Government at Patrick Henry College and the founding president of the Front Porch Republic. He is the author of The Politics of Scale, Place, and Community in a Global Age (Potomac Books, 2012) and Michael The Art of Knowing (ISI, 2006).
Jason Peters is Dorothy J. Parkander Professor in Literature at Augustana College (IL). He is the editor of both Wendell Life and Work (University Press of Kentucky, 2007) and Land! The Case for an Agrarian Economy, by John Crowe Ransom (a Front Porch Republic book published by the University Press of Notre Dame, 2017).
Localism in the Mass A Front Porch Republic Manifesto assembles thirty-one essays by a variety of scholars and practitioners--associated with Front Porch Republic--seeking to articulate a new vision for a better future. The writers are convinced that human apprehension of the true, the good, and the beautiful is best realized within a dense web of meaningful family, neighborhood, and community relationships. These writers seek to advance human flourishing through the promotion of political decentralism, economic localism, and cultural regionalism. In short, Front Porch Republic is dedicated to renewing American culture by fostering the ideals necessary for strong communities.
"Why reorient our lives toward local communities, economies, farmlands and forests? Because that's where you can be a citizen rather than a consumer, where you can see a need and help to meet it, where kinfolk might gather not just to visit but to live, where flesh-and-blood neighbors can offer one another aid and companionship, where public officials must answer for their actions, where you can grow food when the trucks stop rolling, where sun and wind offer free energy, and where you can protect and restore a piece of Earth. If anything in that list appeals to you, then you'll be stirred by this book--a bold reimagining of our lives and our places."
--Scott Russell Sanders, author of Staying Making a Home in a Restless World and other books
"If each of these essays is a gem--and it is--then coming upon them all in one place is what it must feel like to come upon a streak of emerald in a layer of shale. To find them embedded in one place, in a manifesto that is a paean to place itself, is a sight, and a site, for hope. Singly, they bring us--with equal parts humor, humility, and gravitas--to new vantage points from which to glimpse tantalizing glints of an alternative to today's creed of greed and gain. Together, they construct a non-military equivalent of a phalanx--with equal parts criticism, common sense, and ideals--against destruction of the particular local places and bonds that give us our lives. Only such patient words and intricately argued bridge-building can help us withstand the ravages of expansion without limits, exploitation without renewal, and social and political polarization without thoughts of perpetuity."
--Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Syracuse University, author of Race How Racial Etiquette, Sensitivity Training, and New Age Therapy Hijacked the Civil Rights Revolution
Mark Mitchell is Professor and chairman of Government at Patrick Henry College and the founding president of the Front Porch Republic. He is the author of The Politics of Scale, Place, and Community in a Global Age (Potomac Books, 2012) and Michael The Art of Knowing (ISI, 2006).
Jason Peters is Dorothy J. Parkander Professor in Literature at Augustana College (IL). He is the editor of both Wendell Life and Work (University Press of Kentucky, 2007) and Land! The Case for an Agrarian Economy, by John Crowe Ransom (a Front Porch Republic book published by the University Press of Notre Dame, 2017).
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 12, 2018
17 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
Mark T. Mitchell
11 books21 followersDr. Mark Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University, an M.A. in Philosophy from Gonzaga University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in History, Crown College.
His research interests include modern and contemporary political theory, conservative political thought, and political themes in literature. Lest he be thought all bookish scholar, let it be known that he also cultivates a small vineyard--a pursuit very dear to his heart.
He is currently a professor of government at Patrick Henry College and editor-in-chief of the weblog, Front Porch Republic, a gathering place of scholars interested in such subjects as people, community, culture, liberty, and limits.
His research interests include modern and contemporary political theory, conservative political thought, and political themes in literature. Lest he be thought all bookish scholar, let it be known that he also cultivates a small vineyard--a pursuit very dear to his heart.
He is currently a professor of government at Patrick Henry College and editor-in-chief of the weblog, Front Porch Republic, a gathering place of scholars interested in such subjects as people, community, culture, liberty, and limits.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 25, 2024
What immediately comes to mind when we hear "localism" is most likely only a small fraction of things to consider.
In this tour-de-force, we get nine categories to think through when it comes to "Place, Limits, Liberty" — the guiding tenants of the Front Porch Republic organization. (I was thrilled to attend their 2023 conference last fall, which is where my husband picked up this book.)
This tour-de-force considers the spectrum of factors which effect human-scale flourishing, and will stretch your intellect and imagination as it does.
It would be difficult to list my favorite essays (I tried and gave up). But I WILL say Jason Peters' essay titled "The Orphans Of Success And The Longing For Home" really messed up my husband and I in the hard—yet good—way that close-to-home things do.
In this tour-de-force, we get nine categories to think through when it comes to "Place, Limits, Liberty" — the guiding tenants of the Front Porch Republic organization. (I was thrilled to attend their 2023 conference last fall, which is where my husband picked up this book.)
This tour-de-force considers the spectrum of factors which effect human-scale flourishing, and will stretch your intellect and imagination as it does.
It would be difficult to list my favorite essays (I tried and gave up). But I WILL say Jason Peters' essay titled "The Orphans Of Success And The Longing For Home" really messed up my husband and I in the hard—yet good—way that close-to-home things do.
June 25, 2024
Maybe the most important (secular) book I’ve read in the past decade. I can think of so many people that I wish would read it, but less than a handful of people I could recommend it to that I think would. The essays cover many subjects, some I had to force myself to read because I didn’t think it would interest me the ways others did, but they all contributed to an increase in my understanding. I was in turns surprised, enlightened, and inspired.
March 29, 2021
This collection of essays was thoughtful, creative, and worth reading. Above all, while reflecting the Front Porch ethos, it was impressively expansive, covering everything from modern society's disordered conception of imagination to what a more humble foreign policy might look like to the history of agrarian politics in America. The collection of authors, which includes the expected names, provides diverse perspectives, although some are more enjoyable to read than others. There's a good mix of more practical essays mentioning actual reforms conducted by local governments and philosophical reflections, bringing thinkers like Dante and Aristotle to bear on questions of modern life.
Some essays proved to be real eye-openers, like David Cloutier's "Luxury and Buying Local", which criticizes the luxury, defined through corrosion of social relationships, of mass consumerism or Susan McWilliams' "Our Hookup Culture", which posits that millennial hookup culture is simply an extension of a mobility-focused lifestyle encouraged by consumer culture. There are a number of pieces I see myself coming back to. There's no question some of these authors put words to thoughts I've had for a while. I've always been a bit more locally-focused. But my increasing disillusionment with nationalized politics and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have convinced me of the need to focus on my own backyard. I've begun to notice how "ruthless efficiency" and "seductive salesmanship" have "suffused American life" (Bosworth 101). While I still view the market as the most efficient way to allocate most goods [with the government stepping in to prove certain public goods], I've grown suspicious of big government AND big corporations [although I remain a little more critical of the latter as at least in the US, that's where the imbalance has been].
"Localism in the Mass Age" is as it claims to be, a manifesto for a broad movement towards placed rootedness in a time of anomie and placelessness. I continue to find the Front Porch Republic perspective refreshing, especially in the wake of a global pandemic. It ends on Jason Peters' rumination on why we need to have hope, distinct from optimism and the opposite of despair (296-97). The news reveals reasons for despair, but that should only make our hope stronger. Hope, though, requires action, and this book provides a framework for each of us to do so.
Some essays proved to be real eye-openers, like David Cloutier's "Luxury and Buying Local", which criticizes the luxury, defined through corrosion of social relationships, of mass consumerism or Susan McWilliams' "Our Hookup Culture", which posits that millennial hookup culture is simply an extension of a mobility-focused lifestyle encouraged by consumer culture. There are a number of pieces I see myself coming back to. There's no question some of these authors put words to thoughts I've had for a while. I've always been a bit more locally-focused. But my increasing disillusionment with nationalized politics and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have convinced me of the need to focus on my own backyard. I've begun to notice how "ruthless efficiency" and "seductive salesmanship" have "suffused American life" (Bosworth 101). While I still view the market as the most efficient way to allocate most goods [with the government stepping in to prove certain public goods], I've grown suspicious of big government AND big corporations [although I remain a little more critical of the latter as at least in the US, that's where the imbalance has been].
"Localism in the Mass Age" is as it claims to be, a manifesto for a broad movement towards placed rootedness in a time of anomie and placelessness. I continue to find the Front Porch Republic perspective refreshing, especially in the wake of a global pandemic. It ends on Jason Peters' rumination on why we need to have hope, distinct from optimism and the opposite of despair (296-97). The news reveals reasons for despair, but that should only make our hope stronger. Hope, though, requires action, and this book provides a framework for each of us to do so.
December 17, 2018
Overall I was very pleased with this book. I’ve been a regular follower of the Front Porch Republic for awhile now, so I was afraid that this collection was just going to be old hat, same old, same old. And don’t get me wrong - in some ways it is, but the essays herein are a wonderful survey of a Third Way to navigate the modern predicament of mass consumerism, Big Business, and Big Government. The way of communal ties, civic associations, growing roots both metaphorically and literally, being a Sticker and not a Boomer, loving good art, and passing down a heritage that fosters affection rather than alienation.
Perhaps you are already familiar and sold on the aforementioned principles, and you believe that you don’t need to read this book. Well as a good story does not decay through a multitude of tellings, so good ideas (common sense really) never lose their lustre from repetition.
Peters and Mitchell put together a great panorama of the implications of a localist way of life; eschewing romanticism, nostalgia, and snobbery, a variegated argument is put forth to the agrarian and the urbanite, the religious and the non-believer, the educated “elite” and the good ol’ boy.
Not all essays in this collection are total home runs, but all offered good perspectives that I could appreciate. There are a few (see Peters, Mitchell, Polet, and Bilbro) that I have full intention of revisiting soon and often. The most important aspect of this book for me personally is the ability to give this book away with confidence. I believe it to be approachable, wide-ranging, and pleasant reading. This could be a great catalyst for those that may have a localist sensibility, knowing or unknowing.
Perhaps you are already familiar and sold on the aforementioned principles, and you believe that you don’t need to read this book. Well as a good story does not decay through a multitude of tellings, so good ideas (common sense really) never lose their lustre from repetition.
Peters and Mitchell put together a great panorama of the implications of a localist way of life; eschewing romanticism, nostalgia, and snobbery, a variegated argument is put forth to the agrarian and the urbanite, the religious and the non-believer, the educated “elite” and the good ol’ boy.
Not all essays in this collection are total home runs, but all offered good perspectives that I could appreciate. There are a few (see Peters, Mitchell, Polet, and Bilbro) that I have full intention of revisiting soon and often. The most important aspect of this book for me personally is the ability to give this book away with confidence. I believe it to be approachable, wide-ranging, and pleasant reading. This could be a great catalyst for those that may have a localist sensibility, knowing or unknowing.
April 7, 2024
True, good, and beautiful. Gripping. Every human should read this collection of essays. A top 10 for me.
Localism in the Mass Age is a study in the art of belonging well. This is not a book that promotes belonging to the machine, but rather a book that delivers hope for how to preserve our humanity. Check out this book that perpetuates a way forward in troubled and troubling times.
Localism in the Mass Age is a study in the art of belonging well. This is not a book that promotes belonging to the machine, but rather a book that delivers hope for how to preserve our humanity. Check out this book that perpetuates a way forward in troubled and troubling times.
April 12, 2023
Got to get me a front porch
January 5, 2019
As with all collections, a mix of the good and the "eh".
The great theme is the focus on the local, the particular, the personal/relational as the proper path to the good, the beautiful, and the true. The contributing authors come from a variety of perspectives, new (southern) agrarian, Catholic traditionalists, Midwest regionalists; their perspective is not unified nor does it articulate a unified policy. Rather, their work collectively can be read as a set of reflections. or perhaps, refractions. What we read are a series of approaches.
Among the more pleasurable essays: Bill Kauffman's Look Homeward, Angels (and Others); Jason Peters' The Orphans of Success and the Longing for Home; John Cuddeback's Killing the Animials We Eat; Philip Bess, Chicago 2109: The Metropolitan Region as Agrarian-Urban Unit; Christine Rosen, Technology, Mobility and Community; and D.G. Hart's reprise of his book, Defining Conservativism Down. Hart was wrong, but the essay is quite useful.
Being a collection of often conservative writers, political thinking generally lapses to the cranky Right rather than giving localism its proper political weight. In an era of Trump, these essays especially needed to be sharper.
As may be expected in any collection, certain voices get left out. The agrarian bent, for instance, misses the very real placemaking perspective of Midwest writers, a good example being David Giffels' The Harway on Purpose about life in Dayton. Likewise, while the agrarian theme can celebrate the hardwork of life in the country as a good, it skips by the other possible set of reflections on craft, such as Matthew Crawford's Shopcraft as Soulcraft. Also going missing are the role of minorities and of their own pride of place, of community and the realization of local goods -- a stance that informs implicitly the protests against gentrification.
Finally, one notes that much of the longing for places one can invest lives in, return to; places that are human scaled and so shape the soul. These are the places that still exist, especially in the Midwest. Again, another area for the Front Porch Republic to explore.
The great theme is the focus on the local, the particular, the personal/relational as the proper path to the good, the beautiful, and the true. The contributing authors come from a variety of perspectives, new (southern) agrarian, Catholic traditionalists, Midwest regionalists; their perspective is not unified nor does it articulate a unified policy. Rather, their work collectively can be read as a set of reflections. or perhaps, refractions. What we read are a series of approaches.
Among the more pleasurable essays: Bill Kauffman's Look Homeward, Angels (and Others); Jason Peters' The Orphans of Success and the Longing for Home; John Cuddeback's Killing the Animials We Eat; Philip Bess, Chicago 2109: The Metropolitan Region as Agrarian-Urban Unit; Christine Rosen, Technology, Mobility and Community; and D.G. Hart's reprise of his book, Defining Conservativism Down. Hart was wrong, but the essay is quite useful.
Being a collection of often conservative writers, political thinking generally lapses to the cranky Right rather than giving localism its proper political weight. In an era of Trump, these essays especially needed to be sharper.
As may be expected in any collection, certain voices get left out. The agrarian bent, for instance, misses the very real placemaking perspective of Midwest writers, a good example being David Giffels' The Harway on Purpose about life in Dayton. Likewise, while the agrarian theme can celebrate the hardwork of life in the country as a good, it skips by the other possible set of reflections on craft, such as Matthew Crawford's Shopcraft as Soulcraft. Also going missing are the role of minorities and of their own pride of place, of community and the realization of local goods -- a stance that informs implicitly the protests against gentrification.
Finally, one notes that much of the longing for places one can invest lives in, return to; places that are human scaled and so shape the soul. These are the places that still exist, especially in the Midwest. Again, another area for the Front Porch Republic to explore.
November 12, 2018
This collection of essays from the webpages of--or inspired by--the Front Porch Republic is pretty excellent. Some of the essays are much better than others, and there are--from my perspective as someone interested in structural critiques and the theoretical analysis of political and economic systems--some real gaps in the discussion: no real engagement with the scholarship on republicanism or environmentalism, for example. But all of them are worth reading, and some are beautifully insightful and incisive. The overall thrust of the volume is getting people to think about their own connections, or lack thereof, to their local communities, and what the strength of absence of those connections can reveal to us historically, politically, economically, or spiritually. There is a genuinely new localist argument emerging out of (or alongside of) the slow collapse of the systems associated with the liberal, late capitalist state, and argument with relevance to how we think about foreign policy, the U.S. Constitution, the do-it-yourself economy, the relationship between farms and cities, technology, sexuality, and the liberal arts. This book probably isn't the perfect introduction to that new argument, but its multitude of voices, both personal and political, is a great start.
May 25, 2018
Our lives are lived on a local level. We are not really “global citizens“ because our reach is about as far as our neighbour.
Or as G K Chesterton quipped:-
“We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain. He is Man, the most terrible of the beasts. That is why the old religions and the old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when they spoke, not of one's duty towards humanity, but one's duty towards one's neighbour... But we have to love our neighbour because he is there—a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given to us. Precisely because he may be anybody he is everybody. He is a symbol because he is an accident.”
So here is a good set of essays on “localism” that place the home and family at the centre of culture.
Or as G K Chesterton quipped:-
“We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain. He is Man, the most terrible of the beasts. That is why the old religions and the old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when they spoke, not of one's duty towards humanity, but one's duty towards one's neighbour... But we have to love our neighbour because he is there—a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given to us. Precisely because he may be anybody he is everybody. He is a symbol because he is an accident.”
So here is a good set of essays on “localism” that place the home and family at the centre of culture.
December 27, 2019
Actually, I rate it 3.5 stars. This collection of essays by various authors is an interesting read, offering different perspectives on political and cultural topics of current interest, departing from the nasty vitriol and tired formulations that too often pollute our public (and private) discourse. Some are excellent, others are of lesser quality, all are thought-provoking. Worth a read.
September 13, 2020
Overall the essays were uneven in quality and interest. However, most of the essays saught to view the postmodern problems of living in our world through different essays, local eyes. Thus the essays that were good, were really good and worth reading. I will dip back into several of these essays in the future.
October 7, 2025
Think Wendell Berry, but without the usual charm. As you might expect with an essay collection, the quality varies dramatically from writer to the next. Some decent essays for sure, but a lot are just plain forgettable.
October 5, 2020
Like just about any collection of essays, some of the pieces in this work spoke to me more than others. I especially appreciated the pieces on philanthropy, technology, and education. Many of the works on economics and politics are very much Distributist, so I was familiar with a good deal of what they laid out. Overall, this is a good introduction to the idea of localism. In our time of travel restrictions, local might seem more important and relevant than ever. This collection will certainly make you think and hopefully value what you have around you.
March 28, 2021
This book is very challenging on a number of levels. I suggest it to anyone who is disenfranchised bumpy the typical American system of doing community.
August 29, 2025
Good stuff here is great, could have been better editing of some essays that were unnecessarily long or even technical
December 31, 2025
thought-provoking and conventional value system challenging
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews