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.

A New Introduction to the Austrian School

“After discussing Menger, the authors go on to present the ideas of subsequent major figures in the history of the Austrian school, including Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Israel Kirzner, and Murray Rothbard.”

After Mansfield

“In his most recent work… Mansfield presents a rich and nuanced portrait of the development of modern political thought.”

How Charlotte Brontë Became Charlotte Brontë

“Graham Watson’s biography of Charlotte is a judiciously researched and well-written overview of the final years of Charlotte’s life… readers will learn just how central Charlotte was to the literary establishment that both praised and scorned her.”

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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