The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

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.”

Unmasking the Ideological Lie

“…Mahoney has taken on an ambitious task: a sweeping examination of the nature, history, and consequences of the ideology that permeates almost all of modern existence…”

A Measured Look at an Unsettling Ideology

“Kirsch could have limited himself to serving up red meat to readers weary of the excesses of radical students and professors breathing ‘theory and invective,’ but instead, he challenged himself by seriously wrestling with a real problem identified by the settler colonialists. The creation of settler-colonial countries really did displace huge numbers of natives. What does that do to the legitimacy of these countries?”

Stylist for the Ages

“To estimate Chateaubriand with any justice, one should try to imagine what might have been the effect had Lord Byron not died prematurely of camp-fever at Missolonghi, but rather, having returned to and reconciled with his native country, adopted the political and religious principles of Burke, sat down in his life’s autumn to write an immortal autobiography, and anticipated the coming of the Oxford Movement with a series of energetic defenses of the twin causes of Tory Monarchism and the Established Church.”

Mark Twain, Huckster

by Staff | Oct 15, 2017

How Not to Get Rich: The Financial Misadventures of Mark Twain by Alan Pell Crawford. Houghton Mifflin, 2017. Hardcover, 240 pages, $27.How Not to Get Rich: I could write a book on that subject! Happily, Alan Pell Crawford, author mostly recently of the thoughtful and...

Organizing Victory

by Kyle Sammin | Oct 15, 2017

Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary by Walter Stahr. Simon & Schuster, 2017. Hardcover, 768 pages, $35. Reviewed by Kyle Sammin The Civil War is often remembered from the point of view of the soldiers. Their stories of strategic genius and individual heroism on both...

Budziszewski Lecture in Grand Rapids

by Staff | Oct 12, 2017

The Society for Law and Culture is joining with the Christian Legal Society in sponsoring a lecture by J. Budziszewski titled “Natural Law: Why and So What?” The event will be held at Cooley Law School in Grand Rapids, MI, on Thursday, November 2, 2017, beginning at...

Which Alexander?

by Staff | Oct 8, 2017

The First European: A History of Alexander in the Age of Empire by Pierre Briant, Translated by Nicholas Elliott. Harvard University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 496 pages, $35. After Alexander the Great died, a wilderness of legends about the boy-conqueror flourished. In...

Reclaiming Corrington

by Daniel James Sundahl | Oct 8, 2017

The Southern Philosopher: Collected Essays of John William Corrington edited by Allen Mendenhall. University of North Georgia Press, 2017. Paperback, $30. I’m guessing it was spring of 1991; Andrew Lytle was on my college campus to receive an honorary Doctor of...

Attack of the Theses

by Staff | Oct 1, 2017

Remembering the Reformation: An Inquiry into the Meanings of Protestantism by Thomas Albert Howard. Oxford University Press, 2016. Hardcover, 216 pages, $40. Even if a person somehow did not know 2017 marks the quinquennial of the Protestant Reformation, she soon...

Sharing Nixon’s Ear

by Chuck Chalberg | Oct 1, 2017

Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever by Patrick J. Buchanan. Crown Forum, 2017. Hardcover, 436 pages, $30.To read Pat Buchanan’s memoir of his tour of duty during President Richard Nixon’s White House wars...

Bridging the Gap to Patrick Henry

by Staff | Sep 24, 2017

Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty by Jon Kukla. Simon & Schuster, 2017. Hardcover, 592 pages, $35.Judging by the local Barnes & Noble, the success of Hamilton: An American Musical has brought about a Federalist renaissance. Two years after its debut, as...

The Happy Skeptic

by Staff | Sep 24, 2017

Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father by Thomas S. Kidd. Yale University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 288 pages, $30. John Adams once commented of his senior colleague, Benjamin Franklin, that “the Catholics thought him almost a Catholic. The...