The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

John Adams: Russell Kirk’s Founding Federalist

“…[Kirk] located the mainstream of the American Founding not with the Jeffersonian Republicans, but with their rivals in the Federalist party. Kirk admired them not only as practical statesmen, but also as anti-revolutionary thinkers in their own right. As he put it, the Constitution they supported was both ‘the most successful conservative device in the history of the world’ and a ‘great monument’ to the Federalists.”

What the American Revolution Secured: Order, Justice, and Freedom

Throughout the semiquincentennial year celebrating America’s independence, The University Bookman will invite a range of writers and speakers to contribute to a series drawing upon Russell Kirk’s work on the American Revolution and the constitutional order it secured.

“To Think Faith” as Educators

“…faith and pedagogy should be in harmony. Smith’s guide is not a theory of faith and teaching or how to sprinkle faith within teaching. ‘It offers repeated practice at noticing and thinking through ways in which faith and the process of teaching might connect in everyday practice,’ in the mundane moments of elementary, secondary, or higher education classrooms.”

Every Educational Bureaucracy is Unhappy in Its Own Way

“In the end, Nikias’s story illustrates a recurring truth about bureaucracies: reformers often find themselves defeated not by external enemies but by the accumulated habits, incentives, and procedures of the organizations they serve.”

The Problems of American Higher Education

“In the spirit of Kirk, the conservative reformer must remember the imperfectability of human nature, a moral truth that the modern academy has forgotten.”

Principle and Pragmatism in Law

Principle and Pragmatism in Law

“Mixing experience with ‘balancing’—the idea that judges must weigh the pros and cons of a legal problem by attributing to ideas or interests a value—Dershowitz puts forth a jurisprudence of prevention. He embraces Holmes’s idea that ‘prevention’ and not retribution—the idea of just deserts—is ‘to be the chief and only universal purpose of punishment.’”

The Collapse of Constitutional Consciousness

The Collapse of Constitutional Consciousness

“…Huq sees a pattern of injustice where those who ‘bridle against government regulation tend to have an easy glide path into federal court,’ while those who contend that individual rights have been violated find the courts ‘less hospitable.’ He asks meaningful questions about the nature of justice and whether the Constitution supports a just society, yet he subordinates the procedural and structural elements of the Constitution, which give it a backbone and endow it with its strength, to ideological notions of fairness, equity, and cherry-picked rights. He misses the irony in that the very qualities he claims to champion are lost in any system that fails to adhere to procedural norms, including those which set limits to remedies by those acting on behalf of the government.”

Localism is Americanism

Localism is Americanism

“In this fine collection of essays there is not so much as a single hint that any sort of top down solution is the answer, much less a top down solution that requires either a big government or a political figure with something between near-dictatorial and dictatorial power. For localists, it’s bottom up all the way.”

A Theological Virtue in the Earthly City

A Theological Virtue in the Earthly City

“Through the lens of hope, Lamb shows how Augustine allows individuals to belong to the City of God and the Earthly City simultaneously, since all worldly concerns and endeavors are shaped by the love of God and contribute to man’s proper end of union with Him.”

Should We Be Good Bankers?

Should We Be Good Bankers?

“Pakaluk argues that the Gospel of Matthew can be understood as two major parts: the crediting and the debiting of salvation by Jesus Christ.”

Out of Many, One

Out of Many, One

“If we could summarize Fredriksen’s Ancient Christianities under one rubric it would be ‘context reveals content.’”

Editors’ Summer Reading

Editors’ Summer Reading

Spring is drawing to a close. Summer is upon us. That means it’s time for summer reading.  Luke C. Sheahan, Editor nce final grades are submitted, and I’ve rested, I begin my trek through a summer booklist. At the top is always Cormac McCarthy’s...

The Book Gallery

A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition. Click on the icon in the upper right corner of the video to see more episodes in this series or check out our YouTube page.

Kirk saw poetry, fiction, tradition, and restraint as essential to understanding America and preserving its character. In his review of "On America," @cjscalia explores Kirk’s vision of the founding, statesmanship, literature, and the enduring ideas that have shaped the republic.

The Audacious Russell Kirk
Bruce P. Frohnen reviews "On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776" by Russell Kirk. Edited by Michael Lucchese.

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