The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

What the American Revolution Secured: Order, Justice, and Freedom

Throughout the semiquincentennial year celebrating America’s independence, The University Bookman will invite a range of writers and speakers to contribute to a series drawing upon Russell Kirk’s work on the American Revolution and the constitutional order it secured.

Britain at the Turning Point

“A major theme that runs through Allport’s study is the shifting equilibrium of power relations between the United States and Britain. The war demonstrated that, as British power and resources dwindled, Britain became dependent on material and financial supplies from the United States.”

Shakespeare Forever

“…in his rich and thorough exploration of not only Shakespeare’s thoughts but also the course of Western thinking, David Womersley demonstrates that ideas do matter, and that Shakespeare is bigger than the harsh but ultimately timid emotions of our age.”

The Innocence of Imagination

“…the innocence that Blake’s poetry sings of is the awe, wonder, and imagination of a child who can conceive of boundless relationships with everything from a flower or butterfly to sister, brother, mother, and father. ‘Growing up,’ Vernon writes in addressing Blake’s poetic philosophy of innocence and imagination, ‘need not mean losing innocence and wonder.’ In fact, a mature innocence that can blend realism with imaginative creativity is key to a good and joyful life.”

William F. Buckley, Jr. and His Presidents

A Man and His Presidents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr. by Alvin S. Felzenberg. Yale University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 417 pages, $35. What more can possibly be said of William F. Buckley, Jr. that he or his biographers have not already said or...

Remember the Walking Dead

The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War by Peter Guardino. Harvard University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 512 pages, $40.The Mexican-American War (1846–1848) is one of the least-remembered conflicts in American history despite being one of the most...

Untethered Revolution

The Expanding Blaze: How the American Revolution Ignited the World, 1775–1848 by Jonathan Israel. Princeton University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 768 pages, $40. We know what partisanship is without invoking Aristotle. We see it all around us, especially after collective...

Literature as Counterculture

A conversation with Robert P. WaxlerRobert P. Waxler is professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and cofounder of the Changing Lives Through Literature program. AM: I’m grateful for this interview, Bob. As you know, I read and enjoyed your...

The Enigma of the Black Republican

The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power by Leah Wright Rigueur. Princeton University Press, 2015. Hardcover, 432 pages, $37.50.In her authorial debut, The Loneliness of the Black Republican, Harvard historian Leah Wright...

A Biographical Interview with Russell Kirk

A Biographical Interview with Russell Kirk

We have just posted an extensive biographical interview of Russell Kirk, conducted in 1989 by Sally Wright (whose novels were reviewed recently in the University Bookman). In “Russell Kirk: Reflections on a Vagrant Career,” Wright captured Kirk’s perspectives on his...

Latest Newsletter

Latest Newsletter

The new Permanent Things Newsletter is now available, featuring reports from a gathering of the John Adams Society of Harvard, highlights on recent Kirk Center Fellows, and a conference on the moral imagination in Kirk, Bradbury, Eliot, and others. We are also...

Russell Kirk: Reflections on a Vagrant Career

An extensive biographical interview with mystery novelist Sally Wright, conducted in February 1989. This interview with Russell Kirk took place largely in February 1989 when Dr. Kirk was seventy-two. It was a great privilege for me to hear him express his perceptions...

One Hundred Years of Communism

Sempa discusses the history, atrocities, and appeal of communism on the hundredth anniversary of the Russian revolution. He recaps books including the Black Book of Communism, the Gulag Archipelago, and The Harvest of Sorrows.

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.

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