The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Revivifying the Conservative Movement

“Roberts has perceived the deep and fundamental crisis within the American body politic, and that crisis is a spiritual crisis.”

The Centrality of Civic Virtue

“A just polity grows as we acquire a moral sense, which fosters attitudes and actions of benevolence toward others…”

Revivifying the Conservative Movement

“Roberts has perceived the deep and fundamental crisis within the American body politic, and that crisis is a spiritual crisis.”

Virtuous Living, Not Just for Philosophers

“Abela refers to both the cardinal virtues and their many subsidiary virtues as ‘super habits’ in order to tap into the popularity of recent books about the importance of habit formation.”

The Spiritualist Origins of Modern Disorder

by Chilton Williamson, Jr. | Sep 17, 2023

“…the dominant characteristic of the new spirituality was the inflation, as egregious as it was absurd, of thought, of language, and of self: every man (or woman) a prophet, every man his own priest, every man a genius, each dedicated to what Dominic Green calls ‘the aristocrat within.’”

Politics Awaiting the City of God: James Schall, S.J. on The Nature of Political Philosophy

by David Beer | Sep 17, 2023

“This volume collects essays where Schall has reflected on questions of political philosophy that were at the very heart of his vocation as a Catholic teacher.”

A Time for Restoration

by Trevor Shelley | Sep 17, 2023

“…Manent and Scruton offer affirmation that the Good is supported in the nature of things, that human beings are capable of cultivating and acting according to political reason, and that the integrity of a national community is requisite for virtue and liberty.”

Reading as a Spiritual Practice

by James E. Hartley | Sep 10, 2023

“…Wilson declares, ‘there is a different way of reading for Christians than for others.’ Her subtitle is meant quite literally: ‘reading is a spiritual discipline akin to fasting and prayer.'”

U.S. Trade Policy According to Robert Lighthizer

by Frank Filocomo | Sep 10, 2023

“Lighthizer… must be credited with disrupting nearly 80 years of establishment orthodoxy on trade.”

Making Sense of Libertarianism

by Alexander William Salter | Sep 10, 2023

“Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi… have written an excellent, and perhaps the definitive, book on the history of libertarianism… This is a serious work of intellectual history…”

Constantine versus the U.S. Constitution

by Glenn A. Moots | Sep 3, 2023

“Gutacker… defends a straightforward thesis: early American political contests were deeply informed by appeals to history.”

Paths of Protestant Social Thought

by Josh Bowman | Sep 3, 2023

“The example set here calls us not only to begin with Scripture, but to always read it in conversation with millennia of Church history and thinking.”

A Revived Cultural Christianity?

by E. Wesley Reynolds III | Aug 27, 2023

“Wolfe reminds us that renewal in America is a matter not only of private faith, but of a public Christian spirit which is patriotic and grateful for our ancient Christian civil order.”