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.

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.”

How to Love What is Permanent

“Throughout the book, Gibbs pleads with his readers that we not only think of the soul in terms of salvation but also in terms of health. Good taste won’t save one’s soul. But it will nourish the soul and incline the soul towards virtue much more than the bad taste we will acquire from mediocre things.”

Personalism in the Age of AI

“Personalism is a philosophical movement that places the human person at the center of inquiry, affirming the inherent dignity, value, and uniqueness of each individual. While it spans both religious and secular traditions, its common thread is a commitment to defending the irreducible reality of the person in an age increasingly shaped by systems, technologies, and abstractions.”

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.”

Discerning of Spirits

Discerning of Spirits

Furnace of Doubt: Dostoevsky and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ by Arther Trace. Sherwood Sugden and Company, 1988; Open Court 1999, 178 pp. $6.95 paper. The religious essences of F. M. Dostoevsky’s vision defy full and final evaluation, for there is always something new to...

William Rusher, R.I.P.

As so many have pointed out, all his life, Bill Rusher provided energetic and steady leadership to the conservative movement. While much appreciated for his wit and wisdom, I was especially grateful for his invaluable support of my efforts to found the Russell Kirk...

Tyranny of the Herd

Bernard Iddings Bell’s Crowd Culture turned a withering eye on American conformity.

America’s Fin de Siècle: End of a Century or a Civilization?

The Culture We Deserve by Jacques Barzun. Edited by Arthur Krystal. Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 1989, 187 pp., $18. Politically America may have won the Cold War, but culturally she has entered the fin de siècle. Despair is chic among youth. Recently a...

Russello reviews

Gerald Russello reviews Freedom at Risk by James Buckley in the May 2011 issue of The American Conservative.

kirk character

The ... conservative is concerned, first of all, for the regeneration of spirit and character—with the perennial problem of the inner order of the soul, the restoration of the ethical understanding, and the religious sanction upon which any life worth living is...

Reinsch on Chambers

The Bookman is pleased to highlight an essay on the enduring relevance of Whittaker Chambers from Bookman friend and contributor Richard Reinsch. It is a concise summary of his book on Chambers, published recently by ISI.

A Return to Reason

A conversation with Robert Royal.The University Bookman is delighted to post this interview with Robert Royal, president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. He has written, edited, and translated sixteen...

The Enduring Brownson

The Enduring Brownson

In Search of the American Spirit: The Political Thought of Orestes Brownson by Gregory S. Butler. Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, Illinois, 1992), 278 pp., $32.50 cloth. In the generation following the founding fathers of the American republic, Orestes...

The Book Gallery

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

How to Love What is Permanent
Sarah Reardon on "Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul From Mediocrity" by Joshua Gibbs.
@CirceInstitute

Personalism in the Age of AI Grant R. Martsolf on "Personalism for the Twenty-First Century: Essays in Honor of David Walsh" Edited by Thomas W. Holman and Richard Avramenko.
@RLPublisher

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