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.”

Not Lucian’s Lucian

by Staff | Jan 29, 2017

Lucian’s Dialogues of the Gods, translated by H. & F. Fowler & W. Tooke, edited by Nicholas Jeeves. PDR Press, 2016. Paperback, 149 pages, $14.Woe to the great comic authors of the ancient world, none of whom would be terribly good sources for a Boy Scouts of...

The Future of France

by Eamon Moynihan | Jan 29, 2017

Faire by François Fillon. Albin Michel, 2015. Paper, 313 pages. Vaincre le totalitarisme Islamique by François Fillon. Albin Michel, 2016. Paper, 155 pages.Less than three weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, longtime French politician François Fillon won...

When Time Was Measured in Decades

by Pedro Blas González | Jan 23, 2017

Gonzáles discusses Spanish novelist Miguel Delibes and his 1964 work, Viejas historias de Castilla la Vieja.

Four Acres in Herefordshire

by Staff | Jan 23, 2017

The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland by John Lewis-Stempel. Doubleday, 2016. Hardcover, 298 pages, £16.99. “Really: I just want the birds back.” So concludes the brief preface/apologia of writer-farmer John Lewis-Stempel’s wonderful new book The Running Hare,...

Hitchens: A Look at a Skeptic

by Staff | Jan 15, 2017

The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World’s Most Notorious Atheist by Larry Alex Taunton. Nelson Books, 2016. Hardcover, 199 pages, $15.Christopher Hitchens (a.k.a. “Hitch”) was a hard-drinking, heavy-smoking writer and public speaker with an...

An American Arcadia Made Accessible

by Staff | Jan 15, 2017

The Brandywine: An Intimate Portrait by W. Barksdale Maynard. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. Hardcover, 276 pages, $34.95. When an author writes of a place that he or she loves, there is always the danger of slipping into an overly sentimental paean that...

Our Real Constitution—And What Happened to It

by Allen Mendenhall | Jan 8, 2017

Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law By Bruce P. Frohnen and George W. Carey. Harvard University Press, 2016. Hardcover, 293 pages, $45.Conservatism lost a giant when George W. Carey passed away in 2013. Thanks to Bruce Frohnen, his longtime friend, we’re...

Endo and the Challenge of Orthodoxy

by Lee Oser | Jan 8, 2017

Silence: A Novel by Shūsaku Endō, translated by William Johnston. Picador Modern Classics, 2016. Paperback, 212+xxvi pages, $16. When he was a boy, Japanese author Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996) converted to Roman Catholicism. He attended Tokyo’s Keio University after the...

A Guide to the Nightmare Countries

by Staff | Jan 3, 2017

Horror: A Literary History edited by Xavier Aldana Reyes. The British Library, 2016. Hardcover, 232 pages, $30. Although superheroes and adolescent saviors have currently wrested pole position on screens and shelves from even vampires and zombies, horror is no longer...

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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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