The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Watch James Panero of the New Criterion discuss “The Urbanity of Russell Kirk” at the 2025 Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.

The Urbanity of Russell Kirk

“The urban fabric must also be mended and darned through continuous upkeep. The city is not yours to experiment. From Russell to Russello, our ancestral spirits cast their shadows whether or not we choose to observe the city of god in the cities of men.”

Marxism and the Rising Generation

“Gonzalez and Gorka have performed an important service in bringing together a wide range of fact and theory and in establishing a coherent line stretching directly from Marx through many important figures to the present day.”

Cracking the Code to Civilization

“In a world flooded with online influencers, ‘red pill’ rhetoric, and algorithmic posturing, Newell offers something older, wiser, and far superior: a code of manliness rooted in the Western tradition of virtue, character, and service. His message is that true manliness is not a pose or performance; it is the integration of moral and intellectual excellence, what he calls ‘the manly heart.’”

France and the Problem of Abstraction

“…French people’s love for ideas, indeed for ideology, often puts them at odds with the pragmatic requisites of a mature democracy and with reality itself. France is, as she very aptly puts it, ‘a country of dreamers who fall into melancholy when reality catches up with them.’ But far from being merely a psychological explanation for French unhappiness, this idealism is the key to a political understanding of our complicated relationship with the very principle of democracy.”

Love and the Law Professors

Law Professors: Three Centuries of Shaping American Law by Stephen B. Presser. West Academic Publishing, 2017. Hardcover, 502 pages, $48. Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall As improbable as it sounds, someone has written “a love letter to the teaching of law.” At least...

H Is for Heritage Rejected

H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. Grove Press, Reprint Edition, 2016. Paper, 320 pages, $16. Reviewed by Jason Morgan In her beautifully crafted H Is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald’s readers meet a sensitive woman—broken on the wheel of bad relationships, family tragedy,...

Canada as Cradle of Conservatism?

The North American High Tory Tradition by Ron Dart. Foreword by Jonathan M. Paquette. American Anglican Press, 2016. Paperback, 337 pages, $28.Today the term “High Tory” is more likely to appear in a dusty, forgotten history of aristocratic estates enshrouded in mist...

Conservative Thinking on Immigration

Citizen, Community, and Welcoming the Stranger. A Bookman Symposium The recent executive order from President Trump concerning immigration has caused controversy noticeable even by the unusual standards of this most unusual administration. The question of immigration...

Toward a Conservative Immigration Policy

Toward a Conservative Immigration Policy

Symposium: Citizen, Community, and Welcoming the Stranger by Yuval Levin Thinking seriously about immigration has become much harder than it needs to be for both conservatives and liberals in America. Our political debates about the subject since this century began...

Toward a Conservative Immigration Policy

Free Minds, Free Markets, and Free People

Symposium: Citizen, Community, and Welcoming the Stranger by Bradley J. Birzer I’m not sure when it became a “conservative” thing to oppose relatively open borders and the free migrations of peoples, especially those seeking freedom from totalitarian and...

Toward a Conservative Immigration Policy

We Want Workers, But We Must Form American Citizens

Symposium: Citizen, Community, and Welcoming the Stranger by Richard M. Reinsch II America’s more open approach to widespread immigration is faltering, the support for it eroded by our low-growth economy. For too many, the pie seems to be shrinking, with those at the...

Universal and Territorial: The American Republic

Symposium: Citizen, Community, and Welcoming the Stranger by Peter Augustine LawlerFrom my view, the two classic sources are G. K. Chesterton and Orestes Brownson. What Chesterton, our friendly and endlessly ironic English critic, saw in America was “the romance of...

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.

"Delsol’s analysis stands out for the breadth of its perspective. Her essay covers topics as varied as corporatism, the French love for status and strikes, immigration, religion and secularism, populism and the role of intellectuals, Jacobinism, and the EU..."

Cracking the Code to Civilization
@CliffordBates12 on "The Code of Man: Love, Courage, Pride, Family, Country" (2nd Edition) by @waller_newell

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