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.”

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...

Taking Stock

Though you would not know it from the weather outside the Bookman’s headquarters, Spring has come, and with it the end of the first quarter of the new online University Bookman. The transition has been a success: our overall traffic has increased beyond even the...

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.

"Delsol’s analysis stands out for the breadth of its perspective. Her essay covers topics as varied as corporatism, the French love for status and strikes, immigration, religion and secularism, populism and the role of intellectuals, Jacobinism, and the EU..."

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

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