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.’”

Mis-Judging Law, Meaning, and Justice

Judging Statutes by Robert A. Katzmann. Oxford University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 184 pages, $25.It is safe to say that, with some notable exceptions (for example, Chief Justice Roberts’s 2012 opinion saving Obamacare from itself by substituting the word “tax” for the...

Rehabilitating MacArthur

The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur by Mark Perry. Basic Books, 2014. Hardcover, 380 pages, $30. Supreme Commander: MacArthur’s Triumph in Japan by Seymour Morris, Jr. Harper Collins, 2014. Hardcover, 363 pages, $27. The historical...

Birzer on Kirk

An interview with Brad Birzer, incumbent of the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in History at Hillsdale College, is the feature article in the most recent issue of Religion and Liberty from the Acton Institute. Birzer discusses his new biography, Russell Kirk: A Conservative...

Lubbers on the Liberal Arts

Listen or read here as Arend D. Lubbers, Grand Valley State University President Emeritus and longest serving college president in the country, speaks on the importance of a liberal arts education. President Lubbers has been a longtime friend of the Kirk family and...

Lubbers on the Liberal Arts

A video of a talk on the importance of a liberal arts education by Arend D. Lubbers, President Emeritus of Grand Valley State University.Listen as Arend D. Lubbers, Grand Valley State University President Emeritus and the longest-serving college president in the...

Citizens Without States?

Adapted from Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization: Citizens without States. Lee Trepanier and Khalil Habib, ed. University of Kentucky Press, 2011. Paperback, 376 pages, $35. While our political and cultural elites debate about what to do with the millions of...

Is It Too Late for Democracy?

Nell’età della tarda democrazia. Scritti sullo Stato, le istituzioni e la politica (In the Age of Late-Democracy: Essays on State, Institutions and Politics), by Lorenzo Ornaghi. Vita e Pensiero, 2013. Paperback, 385 pages, €28. In a passage of his Politica methodice...

Strange Inhabitants of the New World

An excerpt from America Moved: Booth Tarkington’s Memoirs of Time and Place, 1869–1928 By Booth Tarkington Edited by Jeremy Beer. Front Porch Republic Books, 2015. Paperback, 284 pages, $32.Our friend and Front Porch Republic founder Jeremy Beer has just edited and...

Understanding the Cold War

Understanding the Cold War

A Brief History of the Cold War by Lee Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards Spalding. The Heritage Foundation, 2014. Paperback, 108 pages, $7. For a conflict that supposedly ended a quarter of a century ago, the Cold War certainly made its share of news in 2014. Important...

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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