About Civic Renaissance
Civic Renaissance is a publication, newsletter, and community dedicated to ennobling our public discourse with the wisdom of the past. It is curated by award-winning writer Alexandra Hudson, author of The Soul of Civility published by St. Martin’s Press.
Civic Renaissance exists to create a public forum for civility, grace, and conversation dedicated to the betterment of the human condition.
Civic Renaissance explores the building blocks of human community and the conditions of human flourishing. It is a place where the best of the old is revived and applied to the challenges we are facing here and now. It will focus on what civic renewal is, why it matters, and how we can achieve it by looking at examples of where it is being done in our world today, as well as throughout history.
There are two components to the vision, purpose, and title of Civic Renaissance: civic, and renaissance.
First, civic.
Civic Renaissance explores the concept of the civic in its fullest sense. We’re all familiar with many conceptually and etymologically interrelated concepts pertaining to the civic: civility, civil society, civic engagement, civil discourse, civic leadership, among others.
We rightly intuit that these concepts are connected. After all, they all share the same Latin root civis, which refers to the conduct and duties pertaining to citizenship. Yet frequently the discourses that that invoke these terms are narrow and segmented, and don’t appreciate the fullness of the concept.
Civic Renaissance does.
It recovers the meaning of the civic in its fullest sense, including the benefits and duties of citizenship to our nation, our communities, and most importantly to one another, our fellow citizens and fellow man.
Second, renaissance.
Civic Renaissance draws inspiration from the long tradition of civic humanism. Civic humanism emerged during the Italian Renaissance and extolled a high view of humanity while reviving the ideas of classical Greece and Rome.
Civic humanists weren’t content with a contemplative life of reading and translation alone. They were inspired by human excellence and sought to cultivate the fullness of our human potential—through a pursuit of beauty, virtue, goodness, and truth—in every realm, particularly the public square.
When we hear the term “Renaissance,” often our minds jump to the age of Petrarch, DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. But Civic Renaissance is not just about civic humanism or Italy’s golden age. While there is much we can learn and benefit from in a close study of these individuals and the broader era of European renewal to which the Italian renaissance led, the concept of renaissance is far too rich to be limited to one era alone.
Civic Renaissance aims to learn from golden eras of human achievement across time and place. History shows again and again that recognizing human potential and investing in cultural institutions such as art and education—especially from a society’s political or educated elite—leads to a flourishing of human achievement.
The Bronze Age (3000-800 BC) was followed by the renaissance of the Greek Archaic period, which produced the first Olympic Games, the first use of a Greek alphabet, and the creation of Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. In fact, the word archaic itself means something similar to what we understand as renaissance: it comes from the greek work arkhē, meaning the beginning of something new.
Or consider the Carolingian Renaissance (led by Charlemagne’s investment in culture and mass education), the renaissance of the 12th century, the Bengali Renaissance, the Harlem renaissance—and so many others.
Many nations have “golden eras” to which they harken back. But we cannot be content with nostalgia. This is why Civic Renaissance is explicitly present and forward thinking: reviving the best of the past to make our life here and now, and our future, better.
We each have a role in this.
Thank you for being here, and for helping to create a more intellectually and civically vibrant future together.
Subscription Details
✨ The Agora — Free
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” —Simone Weil
The Agora was the vibrant public square of ancient Greek city-states—a welcoming space where citizens gathered freely to exchange ideas, debate, and engage in the life of the community; it perfectly embodies the spirit of the free tier as an open, accessible forum for all who seek thoughtful conversation and shared exploration
What stays free:
New essays exploring timeless ideas—beauty, goodness, truth, civility, and the soul of our shared life
Public dispatches from the Great Conversation
Select curated reading lists, reflections, and resources
This tier offers a taste of the feast. For many, that will be enough. I’m glad you’re here. Please, stay a while.
New addition: Access to the full archive will now be reserved for paid subscribers—not to gatekeep, but to honor the value of this growing body of work and ensure its sustainability.
🪞 The Stoa — $7/month or $70/year
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” —Rainer Maria Rilke
For readers who want to go further, think more slowly, and help sustain the work, welcome to The Stoa.
Inspired by the Stoas (pronounced sto-AH) of ancient Athens—those covered walkways and porches where philosophers gathered to teach, debate, and renew the civic spirit—this tier embodies a place of thoughtful dialogue and social renewal. Just as the Stoa was a vital hub for cultivating wisdom and community in the public square, this tier offers intimate access to my creative process, behind-the-scenes insights, and lively exchanges with a community of seekers dedicated to reviving the ideals of beauty, virtue, and the good life.
Rooted in the ethos of The Soul of Civility and my ongoing work, The Stoa is a digital porch where together we renew not only ideas but the very fabric of our civic and social lives.
What you’ll receive:
Full access to the archives—over 100 essays and dispatches from the intellectual life
Behind-the-scenes notes and fragments from my creative process (think marginalia, half-formed questions, what didn’t make the cut)
Monthly “Commonplace Book” email — a private collection of quotes, books, thoughts, and questions I’m collecting and wrestling with
Early access to podcast episodes, plus invitations to attend live recordings (virtual or in person)
Occasional games, quizzes, and other playful ways to encounter great ideas—for the love of learning, not performance
And most importantly: the knowledge that you’re helping create a space where enduring ideas can live and breathe
🕯 The Academy — $250/year
“The cultivation of leisure, understood as the capacity to be contemplative and attentive, is the foundation of culture.” —Josef Pieper
Named after Plato’s Academy, the original intellectual sanctuary and the world’s first enduring institution of higher learning, it conveys an intimate circle of dedicated thinkers and patrons shaping the future of the community.
This tier is for those who want to help build more than a newsletter—it’s for those helping build a culture.
You’ll receive everything in the Patron tier, plus:
A personal conversation (virtual) where I can thank you, hear what matters to you, and invite you to help shape the future direction of this community and its work
A reading guide for The Soul of Civility—an exclusive digital resource to support your life of the mind: classic texts, curated paths, and prompts to reawaken wonder
A chance to be named (with permission) in a future acknowledgments page or publication as Patron of Civic Renaissance
Occasional surprise mail or gifts—sometimes analog, sometimes digital, always intentional
About Alexandra Hudson
ALEXANDRA O. HUDSON is passionate about the way that ideas and storytelling change people’s lives. A sought-after thinker and speaker, Alexandra has advised foreign governments—from The Parliament of Canada to the UK House of Lords—and is regularly heard speaking at venues such as Stanford University or Yale Law School. She was named the 2020 Novak Journalism Fellow, and contributes to CBS, PBS, C-SPAN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, TIME Magazine, POLITICO Magazine, and Newsweek. Alexandra earned a master’s degree in public policy at the London School of Economics as a Rotary Scholar, and is also the creator of a series for The Teaching Company called Storytelling and the Human Condition.
Her bestselling book, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves, was published by St. Martin’s Press, and led her on a fifty-city book tour across the globe with her husband and two small children.
She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her family, where they are restoring their historic, Italian Renaissance style home—a project that is an appropriate metaphor for Alexandra’s life work of reviving the wisdom and beauty of the past and melding it with the needs of the present.
Subscribe and stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
