The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
Watch James Panero of the New Criterion discuss “The Urbanity of Russell Kirk” at the 2025 Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.
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.”...
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...
The Judges’ Law Book: A Major Study of John Selden
John Selden and the Western Political Tradition by Ofir Haivry. Cambridge University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 518 pages, $100. W. BRADFORD LITTLEJOHN Asenior scholar once quipped to me when I was weighing topics for my doctoral work: “the goal of a historical doctoral...
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...
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition. Click on the icon in the upper right corner of the video to see more episodes in this series or check out our YouTube page.
