The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
Harvey Mansfield’s Long Dissent
“Mansfield’s central and most important complaint about Harvard… is that its faculty has failed to design or even to articulate the general education that might characterize the educated man.”
Hebraic Ideas at the Founding
“…is there room for Jews and Christians to draw closer together adding Hebraic ideas into the treasury of American self-understanding?”
What We’re Reading
Summer Reading Suggestions
Gordon Wood and the Verisimilitudes of Consensus History
“…Wood’s bold and consistent emphasis was on the revolutionary nature not just of the American Revolution but of America itself… The only sense of nationhood and national purpose, in Wood’s rendering, came from the Revolution…”
Forming the American Imagination
“Culture-making and imagination formation—in short, the education of the affections—though movies, music, and literature have been left almost entirely to those who view the inherited Western and American tradition with suspicion, if not outright contempt.”
A Man for All Seasons
“His latest book is a collection of essays that reflect the breadth of his interests and the power of his pen. [It] contains delightful ruminations on matters as diverse as his home state of California, his teachers and heroes, domestic culture and politics, foreign affairs, and the miscellaneous diversions that have occupied his lively mind.”
Finding Faith in Fiction
“D’Amico implores us to take time to ‘sink into the wonder’ that our children feel for the big and small details in creation as they see God’s plan unfolding in the world. Parents and caretakers are responsible ‘to invite sacred interpretations of real-life experiences’ by pursuing natural moments of curiosity.”
The Liturgical Key to Tolkien
“…Reinhard makes a unique case that exploring Tolkien’s entire body of work through the lens of the Catholic liturgy as Tolkien experienced it turns up rich insights into both the man and the myths he wove.”
To Find Eyes to See
“Hren selects earnest classics that have stood the test of time—books that generations of readers have found edifying and moving. But also, in the introduction and conclusion alike, Hren returns to another key point of fiction: it doesn’t just help us see extraordinary truth, although it can. More important is that fiction gives us eyes to see the transcendence of ordinary lives, including our own.”
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition. Click on the icon in the upper right corner of the video to see more episodes in this series or check out our YouTube page.
