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.

The Long Decline of Liberalism

“Pilkington describes the many societal ills that this destruction of hierarchies entailed… While Pilkington’s diagnosis of liberalism as the source of these diseases seems sound, his confidence that global liberalism is collapsing rapidly and that the immediate future will be ‘post-liberal’ leaves me uneasy. Even if we grant that liberalism is an inherently unstable way of organizing a polity, does that really allow us to predict just how rapidly that instability will lead to a downfall?”

The British Empire on Trial

“[Biggar’s] book amounts to a defense of the British Empire. He succeeds at giving the reader ample reasons not to hate his home country, but also misses an opportunity to use his unique training to pioneer a more innovative form of history.”

A Heroic Little Sparrow Shines Brightly in the Dark World of Children’s Literature

“The story is as delightful and charming as it sounds, recounting the odyssey of a virtuous sparrow named Passer who must move his family to a new home after ‘big yellow machines’ appear at his home.”

Holy Living After the Fall

Holy Living After the Fall

“At the center of this work is the sense that the world is essentially irredeemable. Individual persons assuredly may be saved, and to the attainment of this end, we all are summoned; but the world itself, with all its works and uses, is the natural property of the Devil, and we are well advised to keep away from it.”

Frontier Fiction at Its Best

Frontier Fiction at Its Best

“This classic frontier story—of the fostered orphan who escapes the baddies who killed his family and who returns to wreak vengeance upon them—is enriched by a vivid depiction of Comanche culture and traditional way of life and by narrative motifs whose roots are deep in the soil of myth and fable…”

The Dangers of Modern Nationalism

The Dangers of Modern Nationalism

“For Hayes, what he describes as the ‘ecumenical liberalism’ of the middle decades of the nineteenth century—respect for individual rights, freedom of speech, free trade, and a growing prosperity—were threatened by the forces of materialism, militarism, and scientific racism which he dated as emerging in the 1870s.”

Education in the Light of Glory

Education in the Light of Glory

“For those who already know and love Kern as a speaker and writer, this book will be a rich delight. Its insights reward the reader on every page. Those not familiar with Kern, however, may be taken aback by the extent of his reveling in layered analogies, intricate structures, and ultimate mysteries.”

Connecting with Aquinas, Connecting with Ourselves

Connecting with Aquinas, Connecting with Ourselves

“Attempting to summarize the thoughts of one of the Church’s most prodigious figures, let alone connect them to contemporary culture, is no small task and Keenan knows it. His book does not pretend to be more than it is: a new lens to read Aquinas through.”

Et in Arcadia Ego

Et in Arcadia Ego

“Poetry, particularly poetry of this kind, has been proclaimed dead too many times to count. Still, elect souls will hear the music of the pan-pipes on the wind.”

Making It Home

Making It Home

“The perils and wonders of the journey home pervade Bilbro’s entire collection, through a variety of verse forms and subjects, many of which are seemingly mundane, as in ‘Listening to the Iliad while Raking Leaves…'”

Aging White Male Future Shock: The Contemporary Relevance of a Sociological Classic

Aging White Male Future Shock: The Contemporary Relevance of a Sociological Classic

“’Future Shock?’ I use that phrase to characterize what I have observed as the predicament—or (as they might view it) the ‘plight’—of aging white males who are buffeted by a host of new developments, ranging from the #MeToo and Black Lives Matters movements to revolutionary technologies of the digital world, that have confused or even paralyzed them.”

The Intrinsic Argument for Free Speech

The Intrinsic Argument for Free Speech

“Core to Turley’s argument is that free speech is justified in the natural law—by which he means modern natural law. Free speech must attach to any coherent understanding of individual rights. In this, Turley is solidly in the liberal tradition. But his argument goes further, drawing from a more nuanced understanding of the person than we often regrettably find in liberal philosophy.”

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.

For America250, @lsheahan enters the fray:
What the American Revolution Secured: Order, Justice, and Freedom
A "revolution not made, but prevented.” Russell Kirk fondly and frequently quoted E. J. Payne’s pithy summary of Burke’s view of the Glorious Revolution.

"So yes, Lord Alfred, perhaps you are right after all. ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world!  Perhaps one last Ulyssean adventure remains beyond the sunset, and perhaps some work of noble note may yet be done."

Load More

Shop through Regnery
Support the Kirk Center
& University Bookman