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.”

After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul

“Walsh could give voice to a devastating criticism of the critics of liberal democracy because they forgot the most important aspect of what they chopped to pieces: there can be no analysis of liberal democracy outside the convictions that underpin it, namely mutual respect for the dignity and rights of others. There is no higher purpose possible than the affirmation of the infinite worth of each human being, of each ‘person,’ and the political consequences of that affirmation: to build that insight into the regimes of self-government.”

Liberalism’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

“In this profound work, Walsh engages the friends and foes of liberalism alike to reveal its enduring appeal and resilience. Throughout he urges us to consider liberalism not so much as a stale academic doctrine, but as a lived experience rooted in the core belief of the inviolable dignity of each person as a free and rational being.”

The Paradox of Liberal Resilience

“The defense of inner liberty seems always to come as the long-awaited response and corrective to the modern state’s interventions…”

The Courage of Lewis and Clark

González reflects on the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to consider their effect on history and their surprisingly effective work in “existential ethnography.”

Conservatism in Disarray

We are pleased to present a review of Brad Birzer’s important book, Russell Kirk: American Conservative, and we will have more to say on the book in the future. Conservatism is in disarray. I write this in the aftermath of the Iowa caucus which followed weeks of...

The Multifaceted Kirk

Russell Kirk: American Conservative by Bradley J. Birzer. University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Hardcover, 608 pp., $35.On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered to Allied forces, officially ending World War II. While celebrations swept the United States, one strange young...

Too Much Reality?

Amends: A Novel by Eve Tushnet. CreateSpace, 2015. Paper, 330 pages, $14.Eve Tushnet’s self-published debut novel Amends is at full gallop out of the gate: J. Malachi MacCool was born in Berkeley, California, in the last decade of the Cold War, to parents who deserved...

A Circle of Instigators

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip and Carol Zaleski. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015. 644 pp., $35.00 cloth.Evelyn Waugh once complained that during the twentieth century, certain literary coteries had “ganged up and captured” an age’s...

The Start of the Division of Europe

After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe by Michael Jones. New American Library, 2015. Hardcover, pp. 374, $28. On 30 April 1945, when Russian troops were but four hundred yards away from his underground headquarters, Adolf Hitler killed himself. The...

A Lived, not ‘Living’ Constitution

The Constitution: An Introduction by Michael S. Paulsen and Luke Paulsen. Basic Books, 2015. Hardcover, 368 pages, $30.A wonderful initiation to the nation's charter, The Constitution: An Introduction provides insights into not only the document itself, but the...

After Consensus Ends

A conversation with with James Piereson.The University Bookman is pleased to present this discussion with James Piereson on his recent book, Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America’s Postwar Political Order, from Encounter Books. Mr. Piereson is president...

The Warrior for Free Government

Churchill’s Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government By Larry P. Arnn. Nelson Books, 2015. Hardcover, 376 pp., $23.Winston Churchill served fifty years in the British House of Commons, was Prime Minister twice, served in several British...

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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