The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Watch James Panero of the New Criterion discuss “The Urbanity of Russell Kirk” at the 2025 Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.

The Urbanity of Russell Kirk

“The urban fabric must also be mended and darned through continuous upkeep. The city is not yours to experiment. From Russell to Russello, our ancestral spirits cast their shadows whether or not we choose to observe the city of god in the cities of men.”

Marxism and the Rising Generation

“Gonzalez and Gorka have performed an important service in bringing together a wide range of fact and theory and in establishing a coherent line stretching directly from Marx through many important figures to the present day.”

Cracking the Code to Civilization

“In a world flooded with online influencers, ‘red pill’ rhetoric, and algorithmic posturing, Newell offers something older, wiser, and far superior: a code of manliness rooted in the Western tradition of virtue, character, and service. His message is that true manliness is not a pose or performance; it is the integration of moral and intellectual excellence, what he calls ‘the manly heart.’”

France and the Problem of Abstraction

“…French people’s love for ideas, indeed for ideology, often puts them at odds with the pragmatic requisites of a mature democracy and with reality itself. France is, as she very aptly puts it, ‘a country of dreamers who fall into melancholy when reality catches up with them.’ But far from being merely a psychological explanation for French unhappiness, this idealism is the key to a political understanding of our complicated relationship with the very principle of democracy.”

Ray Bradbury, In Memoriam

Ray Bradbury, In Memoriam

Ray Bradbury, a close friend of Russell Kirk, died on June 5, 2012 at age 91 in Los Angeles. He was the author of numerous novels and stories beloved by several generations of readers worldwide, especially The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine,...

‘Warm with Generous Impulse’: Ray Bradbury, In Memoriam

Russell Kirk on Ray Bradbury, on the occasion of the death of Bradbury.A close friend of Russell Kirk, Ray Bradbury died on June 5, 2012 at age 91 in Los Angeles. He was the author of numerous novels and stories beloved by several generations of readers worldwide,...

On Statesmanship: The Case of John Adams

This article is the second of two parts and is based on a talk delivered to a Colloquium on Statesmanship and the Constitution at the Rochester Institute of Technology, April 13–14, 2012. Part One is here.So now we come to the crux of the issue: statesmanship means...

Practical Sermons

Redeeming the Time by Russell Kirk. Edited with an introduction by Jeffrey O. Nelson. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1996, 321 pp., $25 cloth, $15 paper. This posthumously published collection of Russell Kirk’s essays once again reminds us of the extent of our...

‘The Farther from the Scene of Horror, the Easier the Talk’

‘The Farther from the Scene of Horror, the Easier the Talk’

Paul Fussell, who died this month, was perhaps more a curmudgeon than a conservative, but his harsh language was intended to counteract propaganda and euphemism and so recover the reality of the human in the face of war and other cultural assaults. Robert Stove provides an obituary appropriate for Memorial Day.

On Statesmanship: The Case of John Adams

This article is the first of two parts and is based on a talk delivered to a Colloquium on Statesmanship and the Constitution at the Rochester Institute of Technology, April 13–14, 2012.What kind of person is worthy of being called a “statesman”? What type of...

The Arrogant Elite

The New Communitarians and the Crisis of Modern Liberalism by Bruce Frohnen. University Press of Kansas, 1996. vii + 271 pp., $30 cloth.In seven concisely written chapters, Bruce Frohnen has captured in The New Communitarians the misguided arrogance and deceit of...

Longshoreman, Philosopher, Mystery

Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher by Tom Bethell. Hoover Institution Press, 2012. Hardcover, 328 pages, $30.None of Eric Hoffer’s ten slim and streamlined books allowed room for photographic inserts. His biography, Tom Bethell’s Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman...

A Philosopher of Ordinary Language

Wittgenstein: From Mysticism to Ordinary Language by Russell Nieli. SUNY Press 1987, 261 pp., $32 paper. One of the persistent themes of the Enlightenment was the need to simplify philosophy, to disentangle it from the rhetoric and methods of scholasticism, and to...

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.

Cracking the Code to Civilization
@CliffordBates12 on "The Code of Man: Love, Courage, Pride, Family, Country" (2nd Edition) by @waller_newell

Marxism and the Rising Generation
Jeffrey Folks on "NextGen Marxism: What It Is and How to Combat It" by @Gundisalvus and Katharine Cornell Gorka @EncounterBooks

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