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.

William F. Buckley Jr.: Literary Figure 

“…the American public intellectual might best be appreciated as a literary figure. Producing about 350,000 words for publication yearly at the peak of his career, Buckley was never at a loss for what to say or how to say it.”

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.”

Revisiting Walter Lippmann

“Lippmann sought to be—and was—what might be described today as an influencer. As such, he never sought to wield power, but he long desired to have the ears and eyes of the powerful. Arnold-Forster is certainly not unaware of that. But it is never his central message. If there is such a message in these pages, and there is, it is his effort to make the reader aware that Walter Lippmann, believer in and defender of the efficacy of progressive government, was also Walter Lippmann, believer in and defender of both the reality and importance of empire in general and of the American empire in particular.”

Family Homes and Drive-in Churches

“After the optimism of the suburban boom, it all went bust. Mass attendance fell by 70 percent. Women’s religious life died out. Parochial education was crippled… The green grass of suburbia was starved into a desiccated, brown waste.”

William F. Buckley Jr.: Literary Figure 

“…the American public intellectual might best be appreciated as a literary figure. Producing about 350,000 words for publication yearly at the peak of his career, Buckley was never at a loss for what to say or how to say it.”

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...

Sparring Theists

Five Proofs of the Existence of God by Edward Feser. Ignatius Press, 2017. Paperback, 336 pages, $20. CASEY CHALK Almost fifteen years ago, Sam Harris’s best-seller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reasoninaugurated what became known as the New...

A Liberal Pope for a Conservative Church

To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism by Ross Douthat. Simon & Schuster, 2018. Hardcover, 256 pages, $26. Lost Shepherd: How Pope Francis Is Misleading His Flock by Philip F. Lawler. Regnery Gateway, 2018. Hardcover, 256 pages, $27....

The Bible Refreshed

The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible by Sarah Ruden. Pantheon Books, 2017. Hardcover, 232 pages, $27. ELIZABETH BITTNER “I have no formal qualifications whatsoever as a biblical scholar—not one degree, not even a single course credit.”...

The Book Gallery

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

How to Love What is Permanent
Sarah Reardon on "Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul From Mediocrity" by Joshua Gibbs.
@CirceInstitute

Personalism in the Age of AI Grant R. Martsolf on "Personalism for the Twenty-First Century: Essays in Honor of David Walsh" Edited by Thomas W. Holman and Richard Avramenko.
@RLPublisher

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