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.

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.”

“Throughout the book, Gibbs pleads with his readers that we not only think of the soul in terms of salvation but also in terms of health. Good taste won’t save one’s soul. But it will nourish the soul and incline the soul towards virtue much more than the bad taste we will acquire from mediocre things.”

Personalism in the Age of AI

“Personalism is a philosophical movement that places the human person at the center of inquiry, affirming the inherent dignity, value, and uniqueness of each individual. While it spans both religious and secular traditions, its common thread is a commitment to defending the irreducible reality of the person in an age increasingly shaped by systems, technologies, and abstractions.”

Christopher Dawson and Pluralism

“In particular, I want to examine three aspects of Dawson’s thought: his conclusion that cultures, especially Western culture, historically have been pluralist; his contention that a pluralism of cultures preserves a sphere of freedom from dominant modern ideologies that would eliminate that freedom; and finally, Dawson’s conviction that a pluralist world represents a new opportunity for evangelization.”

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...

Transylvanian Dreams and Nightmares

by Staff | Sep 17, 2017

Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula by Bram Stoker and Valdimar Ásmundsson, Translated by Hans Corneel de Roos. Overlook Press, 2017. Hardcover, 320 pages, $30.Dracula appeared first in a dream. In a journal entry dated March 8, 1890, Bram Stoker writes,...

A French Murder and Its Aftermath

by Staff | Sep 17, 2017

Laëtitia ou la fin des hommes by Ivan Jablonka. Paris: Le Seuil, 2016. Paperback, 400 pages, €21.On the night of January 18, 2011, Laëtitia Perrais, an eighteen-year-old French girl, was brutally murdered near the village where she lived in the Nantes region. She’d...

Historical Marker Project

by Staff | Sep 11, 2017

Thank you! In preparation for the upcoming centennial of the birth of Russell Kirk, friends have successfully funded a historical marker for his birthplace of Plymouth, Michigan. We are grateful to all who participated. Here is a video of Annette Kirk and Andrea Kirk...

Burning River: Glimpses from the Banks of the Cuyahoga

by Will Hoyt | Sep 10, 2017

Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, 2nd Edition, edited by Richie Piiparinen and Anne Trubek. Belt Publishing, 2014. Paper, 272 pages, $20. The Akron Anthology, edited by Jason Segedy. Belt Publishing, 2016. Paper, 211 pages, $20. When I first emigrated from...

Treasures in the Garden

by Matthew M. Robare | Sep 10, 2017

The Walled Garden: Poems by Andrew Thornton-Norris. CreateSpace, 2011, 2015. Paper, 74 pages, $7. Few things have frustrated supporters of traditionalist or conservative aesthetics than the state of contemporary poetry. It seems that not a year goes by with at least...

Books in Little: Philosophy for Life

by Staff | Sep 10, 2017

On Life and Death by Cicero. Translated by John Davie. Oxford University Press, 2017. Paper, 261 pages, $17.The fresh hardcovers of such works as On Old Age on bookstore shelves indicate that Cicero is in vogue nowadays. Perhaps a statesman and philosopher who...

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

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