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.
The “Art of Being” and “The Art of Becoming”
“For Wilson… the best poems are seasoned reflections that develop in waves and ‘become’ informed by faith…”
The Paradoxical Ideology
“Rousseau’s ideas have influenced both theorists and practitioners of democracy, such as Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, and Jacques Maritain. For Finley, the common thread in this group is belief in the ideology of democratism. For each of these figures, democracy is perceived as the ultimate end for society, akin to religious salvation, and only an elite-controlled oligarchy can represent society’s ‘general will.’ The irony is that this oligarchy employs undemocratic means in the name of democracy to achieve its objectives.”
Democratism and False Equivalence
“Finley argues that advocates of ‘democratism’ have always argued for democracy not as a regime of popular government but as a set of political norms of enlightened public sharing commitments to further liberation from traditional bonds.”
Churchill in His Element
“The River War was not just an adventure for Churchill; it was a foundation for his burgeoning thoughts on the strategy of war.”
Retaining Humanity in the Age of A.I.
“…a more important consideration is how schools can teach students to focus on the value of connecting with other human beings instead of disproportionately focusing on electronics.”
Roosevelt’s Revolution
“The New Deal which emerges from Beito’s narrative is nothing less than a revolution against the American constitutional order.”
Recovering the Idea of Statesmanship
“The originality of Burtka’s approach lies in his effort to restore an even more old-fashioned approach, that of the ‘mirror of princes,’ as the key to taking statesmanship seriously once again.”
Sowell’s Summary Argument
“Chipping away at elite consensus over the progressive agenda… requires a cultural turn…”
Vanquishing the Social Justice Warriors
“…the book is best for those who are relatively new to Sowell’s work, for it provides a taste of many themes that have guided his political and economic thought from the 1970s to today.”
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.
Join us tomorrow night as @JamesPanero, Adam Simon, and @lsheahan discuss the Haunted House on the Book Gallery at 6pm ET: https://buff.ly/tRXeumD
"Voegelin argued that history itself lacked any patterns discernible for the political philosopher. All that was constant was a person’s experience of the divine..." @lee_trepanier
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