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.”

History on Improper Principles

“The condescending attitude—even animus—behind this book is, in fact, among the reasons Trump came to power in the first place. Voters, clearly sick of being sneered at by elites like Lichtman and his colleagues in the established commentariat, have turned to populism as an outlet for their frustrations.”

Man’s Exposed Condition in a World of Severe Conflict

“When Czeslaw Milosz was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1980, he was introduced as a writer ‘who with uncompromising clearsightedness voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts.’ As it is, he’s a poet of history whose warnings about despots carry a terrible weight… Here is a man who, from his exile, remembers his European homeland, his Poland, as a place of Gothic cathedrals, of Baroque churches and, yes, ‘synagogues filled with the wailing of a wronged people.’”

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.”

The Original Struggle Between Globalism and America First

The Original Struggle Between Globalism and America First

“…what could be more timely than an account of the first national ‘America First’ campaign? And who should provide this accounting but historian H. W. Brands whose long string of solid books brands him as one of our most important and most prolific chroniclers?”

Proverbs, Virtues, and Callings

Proverbs, Virtues, and Callings

“This is at the heart of Melanchthon’s teaching on virtue in his commentary on Proverbs. We must ‘not undertake anything without our vocation constraining us,’ but within these vocations we must find the specific virtues that will adorn them and make our efforts useful.”

Cabrini: The Humble Saint Behind the Film

Cabrini: The Humble Saint Behind the Film

“Cabrini, the nun who would become a saint, dedicated her life to helping good people in practical ways… Her letters, carefully collected… showed the love that motivated her kindness.”

The Fessio Phenomenon

The Fessio Phenomenon

“I wish I could say that the recent history of Catholic higher education in America made sense, but, thanks to Father Buckley, it makes more sense to me than it used to.”

The Divine Inspiration of Handel’s Messiah

The Divine Inspiration of Handel’s Messiah

“…to tell the story of the unusual circumstances and influences giving rise to Handel’s religious oratorio while ignoring that the purpose of the great work is to testify to faith in God in Jesus Christ is analogous to writing a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. and using examples of his use of Scripture to illustrate only his political savvy, and not also what he actually believed in as a Christian minister.”

Buckley at 100: At Sea with William F. Buckley Jr. 

Buckley at 100: At Sea with William F. Buckley Jr. 

“An elegant jet-setter with a flair for literary journalism, Buckley had few rivals in the art of travel writing, especially when it came to sailing. A master storyteller, he adeptly wove devices of fiction together with reportage to craft entertaining narratives full of exuberance and authority.”

Roadmap for Downsizing the Administrative State

Roadmap for Downsizing the Administrative State

“Ryun begins by describing the ‘leviathan’ that has overtaken our democracy. It is crucial to understand that the administrative state is not merely a costly and wasteful but essentially innocuous excess of bureaucracy: it is, rather, an ‘unelected, detached, powerful bureaucracy’ that now controls most of our nation’s legislative, executive, and judicial functions, and as such it represents ‘nothing less than a regime change against and over the Constitution of 1787.’

The Book Gallery

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

Family Homes and Drive-in Churches
@JacobRAkey (@firstthingsmag) on "Crabgrass Catholicism: How Suburbanization Transformed Faith and Politics in Postwar America" by Stephen M. Koeth, CSC. @UofC Press

Reality Check for Politics --- @FilocomoFrank on "Political Breakdown: Why Politics Have Failed" by Lawrence M. Mead. Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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