Family Homes and Drive-in Churches
Crabgrass Catholicism: How Suburbanization Transformed Faith and Politics in Postwar America By Stephen M. Koeth, CSC. University of Chicago Press, 2025. Paperback, 328 pages, $30. Reviewed by Jacob Akey. This September, the cardinal archbishop of New York unveiled a...
William F. Buckley Jr.: Literary Figure
By Bill Meehan. As his centennial year comes to a close, I’d like to advocate for a useful way to look back on the life and work of William F. Buckley Jr. Known mostly for his television show Firing Line and his journal of opinion National Review, the American public...
Reality Check for Politics
Political Breakdown: Why Politics Have Failed By Lawrence M. Mead. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025. Hardcover, 183 pages, $110.95. Reviewed by Frank Filocomo. If it wasn’t already obvious, today’s politics is burdened by third rails, sacred cows that ought not be...
How to Love What is Permanent
Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul From Mediocrity By Joshua Gibbs. Circe Institute, 2024. Hardcover, 272 pages, $28.99 Reviewed by Sarah Reardon. A significant part of Russell Kirk’s legacy is that he reminded moderns to seek and cherish the “permanent things”...
Personalism in the Age of AI
Personalism for the Twenty-First Century: Essays in Honor of David Walsh Edited by Thomas W. Holman and Richard Avramenko. Lexington Books, 2025. Hardcover, 266 pages, $115. Reviewed by Grant R. Martsolf. The first time I had ever heard of ChatGPT was in April of...
Christopher Dawson and Pluralism
By Gerald J. Russello. Editors’ Note: The University Bookman honors the fourth anniversary of the passing of its long-time editor, Gerald J. Russello, by republishing this essay on one of Gerald’s favorite subjects: Christopher Dawson. This essay appeared in Faith...
Trust and Hope as the Final Words
Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up, A Poetic Meditation By Christine Kohler. Resource Publications, 2024. Hardcover, 78 pages, $25.00. Reviewed by Annmarie McLaughlin. Christine Kohler’s poetry debut, Silent No More: Bible Women Speak Up, A Poetic Meditation,...
The Other Greek Woman
Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics, Second Edition By Nancy Felson. Harvard University Press, 2025. Hardcover, 220 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Jesse Russell. Until the recent fascination with Cleopatra VII, Helen of Sparta / Troy has been the most readily...
Suicide Narratives and the Goodness of Being
Suicide in Modern Catholic Literature By Martin Lockerd. Cascade Books, 2025. Paperback, 196 pages, $27. Reviewed by John Ehrett. Around the world, assisted suicide—now going under the perverse euphemism “MAID,” or “Medical Assistance In Dying”—has become a...
"The first question, and perhaps the most pressing one when reviewing a book by @McCormickProf, is this: Even in the comparatively small world of intellectual conservatism, is there anything George isn’t doing?" - R. McKay Stangler in @ubookman
"Nonetheless, admittedly indirect evidence has been put forth, evidence which at least suggests that Hoover might have been inadvertently onto something when he successfully proposed replacing the notion of a relatively quick “panic” with something more drawn out, maybe even