Pondering the Defeatists
The Age of Defeat by Colin Wilson with an introduction by Thomas F. Bertonneau. Aristeia Press, 2018. Paperback, 243 pages, $15. Reviewed by Richard Cocks This handsome new edition of The Age of Defeat is complemented by Tom Bertonneau’s excellent introduction....
Hibernian Pastoral
My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home by Michael Brendan Dougherty Sentinel, 2019. Hardcover, 240 pages, $24. Reviewed by Chris R. Morgan Michael Brendan Dougherty’s My Father Left Me Ireland is the latest in a spate of books currently...
A Gimlet Eye Beneath a Chapel Veil
Frost in May By Antonia White Virago Modern Classics, [1933] 2019. Paperback, 224 pages, $14. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet “We work to-day to turn out, not accomplished young women, nor agreeable wives, but soldiers of Christ, accustomed to hardship and ridicule and...
Politics and Poetics: Educating Wise Statesmen
The Soul of Statesmanship: Shakespeare on Nature, Virtue, and Political Wisdom Edited by Khalil M. Habib and L. Joseph Hebert Jr. Lexington Books, 2018. Hardcover, 224 pages, $95. Reviewed by Christopher Fisher The statesman is a rare beast. Who among them come...
No Mere Textbook
Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred M. McClay. Encounter Books, 2019. Hardcover, 504 pages, $35. Reviewed by Bruce P. Frohnen In this fine book, Wilfred McClay makes an important contribution to American education and culture. Every year...
Reagan’s Consistent Cheerful Convictions
The Literary Reagan: Authentic Quotations from His Life By Nicholas Dujmovic. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. Hardcover, 346 pages, $88. Reviewed by William F. Meehan III Nicholas Dujmovic’s rationale for compiling and editing The Literary Reagan is clear: the...
On the Rebuilding of Notre-Dame
By James Atkins Pritchard The fire that burned in the very heart of Paris has now for a fortnight been put out. Each night the city’s great cathedral stands in the darkness, roofless but defiant, to greet—as it has at least three hundred thousand times—another dawn....
John L. Connelly: In Memoriam
John Connelly was a longtime Bookman reader and occasional contributor, and also a strong intellectual influence as teacher and mentor on the current editor. His friend and collaborator John McCarthy offers this memorial. An Exemplar of an Educator in the Jesuit...
Attacking the Idols of the Elites
The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe. Little, Brown, 2016. Hardcover, 192 pages, $26. Reviewed by Titus Techera Tom Wolfe was the last of the all-American writers. He made a career of chasing interesting stories on American freedom for half a century. No one else has...
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!