The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Join friends of the Bookman in New York City on December 8 for the Gerald 2025 Russello Memorial Lecture.

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.’”

American Religious Freedom: The Revised Story

The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom by Steven D. Smith. Harvard University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 240 pages, $40. In legal scholarship, as in any literature, style matters as much as content. The subjects authors explore, their manners and patterns of...

The Humanistic Tradition in Literature

Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism: The Humanistic Alternative by James Seaton. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 225 pages, $90.Back when I was a pimple-faced graduate student in English and law, I ordered a book from Amazon titled...

How Progressive Is Berlin?

Isaiah Berlin and the Politics of Freedom edited by Bruce Baum and Robert Nichols. Routledge, 2013. Hardcover, 284 pages, $130. Among Anglophone political theorists who lived in the twentieth century, Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) stood out for the breadth of his...

The Real Great Depression?

The Forgotten Man, Graphic Edition: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes. Harper Perennial, 2014. Paperback, 320 pages, $20.Amity Shlaes does not believe in playing it safe. In 2007 she issued the original edition of The Forgotten Man: A New History...

Teaching in an Age of Ideology

What does it mean to teach in an age of ideology? At first glance, especially for conservatives, the answer appears to be obvious: to advocate for conservative ideas and principles against the prevailing ideologies of relativism, feminism, multiculturalism, and other...

Alfred Thayer Mahan and the Coming of the First World War

The American diplomat and historian George F. Kennan called the First World War the “seminal catastrophe of [the twentieth] century.” Between 1914 and 1918, the major powers of Western civilization waged brutal and unrelenting war against each other, resulting in the...

Betrayal of the Arab Christians

Betrayal of the Arab Christians

The Last Communion: A Journey among the Abandoned Christians in the Arab World. By Klaus Wivel. Kristeligt Dagblads Forlag (Denmark), 2013. Paperback, 320 pages. In 2011 in the Danish weekly Weekendavisen, journalist Klaus Wivel published an open letter to the foreign...

The Philosophies of the Modern Era and the Catholic Church

The Church and the Culture of Modernity By R. J. Divozzo. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011. Paperback, 404 pages, $15.25.Richard Divozzo’s The Church and the Culture of Modernity provides a insightful study of the root causes of the decline in public...

Multiculturalism or Clash of Civilizations

The Democratic Contradictions of Multiculturalism by Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederick Stjernfelt. Telos Press, 2012. Paperback, 410 pages, $25. This is an important, even a courageous book, as it challenges the now-hallowed idea of multiculturalism. It examines the...

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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