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.”

Russell Kirk as a Midwestern Writer

Video of a seminar on "Russell Kirk as a Midwestern Writer" at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature at Michigan State University, June 2, 2015.A panel on "Russell Kirk as a Midwestern Writer" took place at the annual meeting of the...

Russell Kirk as a Midwestern Writer

A panel on "Russell Kirk as a Midwestern Writer" took place at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature on June 2, 2015 at Michigan State University. Jon Lauck was the moderator and presentations were made by Gleaves Whitney, James...

The Puritan Society: Toward Pluralism

The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather by Michael G. Hall. Wesleyan University Press, 1988. xv + 438 pp. $35.Michael G. Hall’s biography of Increase Mather goes far toward rehabilitating the Mather family of colonial Massachusetts. The Mathers have...

The Geneaology of Decadence?

Soumission by Michel Houellebecq. Paris: Flammarion, 2015. Hardcover, 300 pages, $50.When Joris-Karl Huysmans published À rebours in 1884, a novel that would come to be known as “la bible de la décadence,” the writer and literary critic Barbey d’Aurevilly weighed in...

A Tale of Contagious Enthusiasm

How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem. by Rod Dreher. Regan Arts, 2015. Hardcover, 300 pages. $30.This is a book written in a surge of enthusiasm—in both the original and the modern sense of the word—and it has the virtues...

Dangers to the Soul

Dangers to the Soul

A conversation with Piers Paul ReadPiers Paul Read is an award-winning English author who has produced an array of novels and nonfiction works, including histories and biographies. This interview with Mr. Read was conducted by Karl Schmude, an Australian university...

Look Under the Turnip

The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver Schönwerth, translated with an introduction and commentary by Maria Tatar. Penguin Classics, 2015. Paperback, 288 pages, $17.In 2012, in Regensburg, Germany, Erica Eichenseer, a cultural curator...

The Final Artistic Taboo

After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History by Arthur Danto. Princeton University Press, 1997, 2014. Paperback, 272 pages, $20.“How can someone possessed of learning and culture in the highest degree spread ideas that are entirely inimical to...

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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