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.”

Robert F. Kennedy and Our Times

Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon by Larry Tye. Random House, 2016. Hardcover, 580 pages, $32.The year 1968 is sometimes invoked in comparison to our current situation. It can serve both as a warning of what serious civil strife looks like in the United...

Searching for the Christian Mind

Liberal Learning and the Great Christian Traditions. Edited by Gary W. Jenkins and Jonathan Yonan. Pickwick Publications, 2015. Paperback, 168 pages, $22. The reality and definition of the “Christian mind” has become rather tenuous. There are different points of...

The Complex War Legacy of FDR

1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History by Jay Winik. Simon & Schuster, 2015. Hardcover, 656 pages, $35.Franklin Roosevelt is generally considered to be a great wartime leader, even by most conservatives. World War II, after all, is often called “the good war,”...

Digital and the Return of the Real

The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax. PublicAffairs, 2016. Hardcover, 304 pages, 25. Reviewed by Gracy Olmstead In the popular 2014 film The Hundred-Foot Journey, Indian immigrant Hassan Kadam journeys from his homeland to the French...

A Testament of Faith and Service

Last Testament by Benedict XVI with Peter Seewald, translated by Jacob Phillips. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2016. Hardcover, 288 pages, $24.Those who have a close affinity with Pope Benedict XVI often wait eagerly for news of the man who did so much to shape the...

Latin Einstein on the Beach

Ossa Latinitatis Sola, or, The Mere Bones of Latin According to the Thought and System of Reginald by Reginald Thomas Foster and Daniel Patrick McCarthy. Catholic University of America Press, 2016. Paperback, 800 pages, $40.The first time I went to the beach with...

A Flawed and Fascinating Man

Diary 1954 by Leopold Tyrmand. Northwestern University Press, 2014. Paperback, 400 pages, $28.A few months ago, a small piece of history arrived in the post. It was a window that allowed us to catch a glimpse of the world of the Polish People’s Republic: Diary 1954,...

Books in Little: Austen’s Catholic Landscapes

Jane Austen and the Reformation: Remembering the Sacred Landscape by Roger E. Moore. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2016. Hardcover, x + 167 pages, $149.95Since Marilyn Butler’s Jane Austen and the War of Ideas appeared in 1975 there has been much written about Miss...

Unwearying Aphorisms

Doublethink/Doubletalk: Naturalizing Second Thoughts & Twofold Speech by Eva Brann. Paul Dry Books, 2016. Paper, 311 pages, $20.In many ways, our civilization seems weary, lacking a youthful confidence in its principles and promises. Perhaps no institution...

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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