The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Support the University Bookman during our annual Kirktober Fundraiser, and receive an audio copy of Kirk’s short story, What Shadows We Pursue.

Kirktober 2025: James Panero and Adam Simon on the Haunted House

October 28, 2025

On Tuesday, October 28, at 6:00 PM, you are invited to join University Bookman editor Luke Sheahan, Hollywood screenwriter Adam Simon, and New Criterion executive editor James Panero, as they explore the theme of the haunted house in gothic literature and its relationship to conservative thought and imagination.

Register for this free webinar here.

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.”

Christopher Dawson and Pluralism

“In particular, I want to examine three aspects of Dawson’s thought: his conclusion that cultures, especially Western culture, historically have been pluralist; his contention that a pluralism of cultures preserves a sphere of freedom from dominant modern ideologies that would eliminate that freedom; and finally, Dawson’s conviction that a pluralist world represents a new opportunity for evangelization.”

Trust and Hope as the Final Words

“Each poem is biblically rooted, but Kohler draws on extra-biblical sources and her own creative imagination to ponder what her characters may have been thinking during the pivotal moments of their mostly undocumented lives. The result is a beautiful exploration into the hearts and minds of the women of the Bible—both named and unnamed—that leaves readers feeling as though the women are imminently present, sharing their innermost thoughts and the overlooked aspects of their experiences.”

The Other Greek Woman

“Felson’s Penelope, who seems, in all probability, very close to Homer’s Penelope, is the faithful wife of Odysseus, but she is also the independent and flirtatious matriarch who rules over her household and teases the suitors, whom she views as her ‘geese.’”

Why Secular Liberalism Isn’t Liberal

John Gray, René Girard, and the return of tribal religionI stuck around St. Petersburg When I saw it was a time for a change Killed the czar and his ministers Anastasia screamed in vain … Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name, oh yeah Ah, what’s puzzling you Is...

L’Engle’s Conservatism

A newly discovered section of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time (1963), which was excised before the book’s publication, makes clear the author’s classically conservative vision of political and social order. The passages have to do with the origins of...

A Lively Half-Life

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Hardcover, 544 pages, $35. “This, in essence, is the dilemma of John Quincy’s life. Respecting him as a statesman, as ‘Old Man Eloquent’ was one thing. Liking him was...

Catholic Principles, American Law

American Law from a Catholic Perspective: Through a Clearer Lens Edited by Ronard J. Rychlak. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015. Hardcover, 326 pages, $85. The contributors to American Law from a Catholic Perspective are well acquainted with the nuance and...

ISI video draws on Kirk’s thought

The Intercollegiate Review has published a short video with Robert Reilly that was shot at Mecosta last summer. In it, Bob Reilly draws on Russell Kirk’s The Roots of American Order to explain why “America is older than you think.” The video is just two minutes long,...

Five Girls, Two Nations, One Historical Imagination

Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back by Janice P. Nimura. W. W. Norton, 2015. Hardcover, 352 pages, $28.Two days before Christmas, 1871, a delegation of Japanese pioneers left the port of Yokohama on the paddlewheel steamship SS America,...

An Unfinished Memoir

Intrepid Woman: Betty Lussier’s Secret War, 1942–1945 by Betty Lussier. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2010. Hardcover, 240 pages, $35.Betty Lussier was born in Canada but raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her father, born in the U.S. but a Canadian citizen,...

Florentines, Politics, and Virtue

Dialogue on the Government of Florence by Francesco Guicciardini, edited by Alison Brown. Cambridge University Press, [1527] 1994. Paperback, 256 pages, $40.The city of Florence rocks with political agitation. Just a few months earlier, her citizens had endured an...

Some of the Right Questions

Deutschland schafft sich ab: Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen (Germany Is Doing Away with Itself) by Thilo Sarrazin. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2010. Almost five years have passed since Thilo Sarrazin published his book Germany does away with itself, a...

The Book Gallery

A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.

There's still time to sign up to join the @KirkCenter for the McLellan Prizes Gala in DC on November 19 https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2025-mclellan-prizes

In honor of longtime @ubookman editor Gerald J. Russello, enjoy this Russello Classic, "Christopher Dawson and Pluralism."

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