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.”

Transylvanian Dreams and Nightmares

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

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

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

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

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

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...

Recovering Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls. University of Chicago Press, 2017. Hardcover, 640 pages, $35. Reviewed by John Byron Kuhner Of all the great American writers, I think I pity Henry David Thoreau the most. Long paired by curriculum writers...

A Great Story, Almost

Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. Hardcover, 288 pages, $30. Reviewed by Ben Reinhard Beren and Lúthien stands out among the posthumous Tolkien publications of the last decade or so. Unlike The...

The Book Doesn’t Change, But the Reader Does

A conversation with Daniel MoranDaniel Moran is the author of Creating Flannery O’Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers. He teaches history at Monmouth University and writing at Rutgers University. Creating Flannery O’Connor was published in 2016 by the...

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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