The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Join friends of the Bookman in New York City on December 8, 2025 for the Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.

Defending the Christian Faith

“In 100 Tough Questions For Catholics: Common Obstacles To Faith Today… David G. Bonagura, Jr. gives bite-sized answers to dozens of big questions about the faith.”

Christopher Dawson and Pluralism

“In particular, I want to examine three aspects of Dawson’s thought: his conclusion that cultures, especially Western culture, historically have been pluralist; his contention that a pluralism of cultures preserves a sphere of freedom from dominant modern ideologies that would eliminate that freedom; and finally, Dawson’s conviction that a pluralist world represents a new opportunity for evangelization.”

Trust and Hope as the Final Words

“Each poem is biblically rooted, but Kohler draws on extra-biblical sources and her own creative imagination to ponder what her characters may have been thinking during the pivotal moments of their mostly undocumented lives. The result is a beautiful exploration into the hearts and minds of the women of the Bible—both named and unnamed—that leaves readers feeling as though the women are imminently present, sharing their innermost thoughts and the overlooked aspects of their experiences.”

The Other Greek Woman

“Felson’s Penelope, who seems, in all probability, very close to Homer’s Penelope, is the faithful wife of Odysseus, but she is also the independent and flirtatious matriarch who rules over her household and teases the suitors, whom she views as her ‘geese.’”

Not Just Another World War Two Book

The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won by Victor Davis Hanson. Basic Books, 2017. Hardcover, 720 pages, $40. DAVID DE GREGORIO During a fireside chat on February 23, 1942, President Roosevelt asked his radio audience to follow along on...

The Naked Emperors

Jews Queers Germans: A Novel/History by Martin Duberman. Seven Stories Press, 2017. Paperback, 384 pages, $20. EVE TUSHNET Martin Duberman, in his recent “novel/history” Jews Queers Germans, rarely describes clothing. He describes, instead, physical attractiveness—the...

Why We Need Liverpool

WILLIAM ANTHONY HAY While traveling with Tsar Alexander and the allied army campaigning against Napoleon as Britain’s ambassador in 1813, the Earl of Aberdeen remarked that “the heroes we read of at a distance with respect dwindle into minor figures at a near...

The Wonder of Medieval Europe

The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors by Dan Jones. Viking, 2017. Hardcover, 448 pages, $30. TIMOTHY D. LUSCH “Two types of humanity were the wonder of medieval Europe: the great saint and the great knight.” So declared Russell Kirk in his...

Not Only Narnia: Lewis as Political Thinker

The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis by Alister E. McGrath. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. Paperback, 191 pages, $36. C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law by Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watson. Cambridge University Press, 2016. Paperback, 160 pages, $27. GARY L....

An Iron Lady Recast

Margaret Thatcher: Shaping the New Conservatism by Meredith Veldman. Oxford University Press, 2016. Paperback, 232 pages, $16.95. CHRIS BUTYNSKYI The clock is counting down in England. Brexit (the exit of Britain from the European Union) is set to officially begin at...

The Evangelical Political Mind

American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism by Matthew Avery Sutton. Belknap Press, 2014 (2017). Paperback, 480 pages, $23. MATTHEW STOKES So much of the recent scholarly work done on evangelicals has focused on correlating characteristics of evangelicals:...

A Coat of Varnish

A Coat of Varnish

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. W. W. Norton & Company, 2017. Hardcover, 592 pages, $40. Reviewed by John Byron Kuhner Genius, said Goethe, reveals itself under conditions of constraint; great minds gather strength from limitation, be it the keys...

Zuckerberg’s Philosopher

The Orange Trees of Marrakesh: Ibn Khaldun and the Science of Man by Stephen Frederic Dale. Harvard University Press, 2015. Hardcover, 400 pages, $31. JAMES KALB This book, written, by an emeritus professor at Ohio State, is a useful and quite readable companion to...

The Book Gallery

A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.

There's still time to sign up to join the @KirkCenter for the McLellan Prizes Gala in DC on November 19 https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2025-mclellan-prizes

In honor of longtime @ubookman editor Gerald J. Russello, enjoy this Russello Classic, "Christopher Dawson and Pluralism."

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