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.”

On Aristotle: Impressive Interpretations

Aristotelian Interpretations by Fran O’Rourke. Irish Academic Press, 2016. Hardcover, 376 pages, $75. JAMES V. SCHALL, S. J. “The power of symbolic signification is possible only because the human mind has an unlimited openness to the entirety of reality, and can thus...

What’s Good for GM is Good for Marcuse

Conservatives Against Capitalism: From the Industrial Revolution to Globalization by Peter Kolozi. Columbia University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 250 pages. $60. GRANT HAVERS Right-wing opposition to capitalism is well-known in European politics. As Marx once noted, the...

What Punishment? Whose Community?

The Machinery of Criminal Justice by Stephanos Bibas. Oxford University Press, 2012, 2015. Paperback, 320 pages, $29. CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN It is rare to see, especially from the right, a critique of the modern American criminal justice system that focuses not just on...

Everything You Think You Know About Fascism Is Wrong

The Age of Secularization by Augusto Del Noce, translated by Carlo Lancellotti. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. Paperback, 304 pages, $35. Scott Beauchamp There’s a great tradition of Italian philosopher-historians who work by reverse engineering the present...

Who Is Blackford Oakes?

Buckley’s leading good guy. WILLIAM F. MEEHAN III The eleven Blackford Oakes spy novels by William F. Buckley Jr. are a significant part of his oeuvre and deserve consideration when discussing his life. What better way, then, to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of...

Rousseau’s Reactionary Disciple

Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1768–1800 by François-René de Chateaubriand, translated by Alex Andriesse. New York Review Books Classics, 2018. Softcover, 584 pages, $20. GREG MORRISON “Pass on now, reader; wade the river of blood that separates forever the old world,...

Trump so Far

BRUCE P. FROHNEN More than a year into his presidency, the Trump scandals continue. The “Russia conspiracy” has been shown for the fraud it always was. But one still hears about Mr. Trump’s personal vices and the crude nature of many of his public pronouncements. Some...

A Little More Crafty

Cræft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. Hardcover, 352 pages, $27. GRACY OLMSTEAD What does it mean to be a craftsman? To us, the word is often caught up in artistry: the...

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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