The Absurdity of Gender Theory
Les démons du bien by Alain de Benoist. Pierre-Guillaume de Roux Editions, 2013. Paperback, 279 pp, €23.00.The Remaining Western Illusion
Lies, Passions and Illusions: The Democratic Imagination in the Twentieth Century by François Furet. Chicago University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 128 pages, $20.By his own admission François Furet was a Tocquevillian. The label is important and elusive and, for a...Walter Berns, RIP
Walter Berns, the great constitutional scholar and political theorist, passed away on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at the age of 95. Throughout his long and distinguished career as a scholar and pubic intellectual, a career that included teaching posts at Cornell, Yale,...A Gentleman of Letters
Selected Letters of Norman Mailer Edited by J. Michael Lennon. Random House, 2014. Hardcover, 867 pages, $40. By any measure, Norman Mailer (1923–2007) is one of the most important writers of post-World War II America. Over seven decades, he produced powerful and...On Looking for What We Have Been Given
“Giving one Catholicism, God deprives one of the pleasure of looking for it, but here again He has shown His mercy for such a one as myself … who, if it had not been given, would not have looked.” —Flannery O’Connor, September 24, 1947. A former student of mine from...Fruits of Procrastination
One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman. Oxford University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 488 pages, $40. Seemingly out of fashion in the internet age, letters have been an important literary genre since the days of St....Children on the Menu
The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, translated and edited by Jack Zipes. Princeton University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 568 pages, $35.Jack Zipes, retired professor of German at the University...The Bookman at Its Best
Dear Friends, This has been a wonderful year for the Bookman and our circle of friends, writers, and supporters. The Bookman published over a hundred reviews, essays, interviews, and symposia in 2014. Among them we would note the symposia we held on James Poulos’s...Congratulations, Caleb!
Congratulations to Bookman contributor Caleb Stegall, who was selected for a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court. We wish him all the best.
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!