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.”

From Practice to Theory

It Didn’t Have to Be This Way: Why Boom and Bust Is Unnecessary—and How the Austrian School of Economics Breaks the Cycle by Harry C. Veryser. ISI Books, 2013. Hardcover, 318 pages, $29. It is rare for an American manufacturing executive operating in the domestic...

Still Left in the Dark

Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark by Brian Kellow. Viking Adult, 2011. Hardcover, 417 pages, $28.After Richard Nixon was re-elected President in 1972, Newsweek magazine quoted acclaimed film critic Pauline Kael as saying: “I live in a rather special world. I only know...

What We’re Reading (Summer 2013)

Last year’s summer reading list was justifiably popular, so the Bookman pleased to return with another round of contributions from our reviewers, who have culled through the massive numbers of books published to focus on those worth reading, discussing, and digesting....

Pragmatists versus Agrarians?

Superfluous Southerners: Cultural Conservatism and the South, 1920–1990 by John J. Langdale. University of Missouri Press, 2012. Cloth, 192 pages, $50. (Kindle ed.) John J. Langdale’s Superfluous Southerners paints a magnificent portrait of Southern conservatism and...

Burke, Party, and the Human Person

JP O’Malley interviews Jesse Norman, political thinker and MP, and author of the new book, Edmund Burke: The First Conservative, on Burke as a postmodern thinker, proponent of political parties, agent of change, and other themes.

The Critics of Burke

The Critics of Burke

Edmund Burke: Appraisals and Applications, edited by Daniel E. Ritchie. Transaction Publishers, 1990, xxvi + 291 pp., $29.95. Daniel Ritchie has given the scholarly world a comprehensive and useful anthology of criticism of Edmund Burke’s writings. I do disagree most...

The Moral Imperative of Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke: The Enlightenment and Revolution by Peter J. Stanlis, Foreword by Russell Kirk. Transaction Publishers, 1991. xxi +259 pp. $40. Edmund Burke: Prescription and Providence by Francis Canavan. Carolina Academic Press, 1987. xiv +183 pp. $24.There has been a...

On General Wolfe’s Preference

On Essays and LettersWill Cuppy (1884–1948) was born in Auburn, Indiana, and he is buried there. He attended the University of Chicago and dithered with a higher degree. He wrote a number of books, the first of which I have. It is called How to Get from January to...

The Book Gallery

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

@ubookman The mission of @ubookman is to identify and discuss those books that diagnose the modern age through the prism of the Permanent Things and so to support cultural renewal. Thanks for joining Bookman writers and readers to do our part to redeem the time. https://buff.ly/6uf2yRz

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