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.

William F. Buckley Jr.: Literary Figure 

“…the American public intellectual might best be appreciated as a literary figure. Producing about 350,000 words for publication yearly at the peak of his career, Buckley was never at a loss for what to say or how to say it.”

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.”

Revisiting Walter Lippmann

“Lippmann sought to be—and was—what might be described today as an influencer. As such, he never sought to wield power, but he long desired to have the ears and eyes of the powerful. Arnold-Forster is certainly not unaware of that. But it is never his central message. If there is such a message in these pages, and there is, it is his effort to make the reader aware that Walter Lippmann, believer in and defender of the efficacy of progressive government, was also Walter Lippmann, believer in and defender of both the reality and importance of empire in general and of the American empire in particular.”

Family Homes and Drive-in Churches

“After the optimism of the suburban boom, it all went bust. Mass attendance fell by 70 percent. Women’s religious life died out. Parochial education was crippled… The green grass of suburbia was starved into a desiccated, brown waste.”

William F. Buckley Jr.: Literary Figure 

“…the American public intellectual might best be appreciated as a literary figure. Producing about 350,000 words for publication yearly at the peak of his career, Buckley was never at a loss for what to say or how to say it.”

Summoned to Greatness

A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the Twentieth Century by William F. Buckley Jr., edited by James Rosen. Crown Forum, 2016. Hardcover, 336 pages, $22. Reviewed by William F. Meehan IIIWilliam F. Buckley Jr. had published forty-five books by the time his only volume...

Books in Little: Kauffman’s ‘Deplorable’ Americans

America First! Its History, Culture, and Politics by Bill Kauffman. Prometheus Books, 2016. Paperback, 390 pages, $18.In numerous books, and in the pages of The American Conservative, Bill Kauffman continues to develop his unique blend of radical localism and...

Digging Up the Bones of Empire

TO THE POINT: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1969 We moderns still are uncovering the tremendous remains of the Roman Empire, which extended from what is now Iraq to what is now Scotland, and from what is now Morocco to what is now West Germany. What modern man cannot...

To Paradise, By Way of Kensal Green

The English Way: Studies in English Sanctity from St. Bede to Newman Edited by Maisie Ward, introduction by Bradley J. Birzer. Cluny Media, [1933] 2016. Paperback, 366 pages, $19. You might expect a book called The English Way: Studies in English Sanctity from Bede to...

Heroism Was Still Possible

¡No Pasarán!: Writings from the Spanish Civil War edited by Pete Ayrton. Pegasus, 2016. Hardcover, 448 pages, $26. Reviewed by Helen Andrews Let it stand uncontested that the term “cultural appropriation” is political correctness of the cheapest and most manipulative...

Passos and Century’s End

Passos and Century’s End

Century’s Ebb: The Thirteenth Chronicle by John Dos Passos. Gambit, 1975. Hardcover, 474 pages. Publico ergo damnatus. —John Dos Passos, May 23, 1970 Reviewed by Pedro Blas González John Rodrigo Dos Passos (1896-1970) is a writer with an expansive view of man, of...

Fall Newsletter features new Society for Law and Culture

The Fall 2016 Permanent Things features news of the inaugural conference of a new Kirk Center initiative, the Society for Law and Culture; an emerging partnership with the new publishing house, Cluny Media; and news of other recent events and publications.

A Samurai’s Hidden Gospel

A Christian Samurai: The Trials of Baba Bunkō by William J. Farge, SJ; Foreword by Kevin M. Doak. The Catholic University of America Press, 2016. Hardcover, 336 pages, $35. For decades, the standard American academic treatment of Japanese Christianity has been that...

The Book Gallery

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

How to Love What is Permanent
Sarah Reardon on "Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul From Mediocrity" by Joshua Gibbs.
@CirceInstitute

Personalism in the Age of AI Grant R. Martsolf on "Personalism for the Twenty-First Century: Essays in Honor of David Walsh" Edited by Thomas W. Holman and Richard Avramenko.
@RLPublisher

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