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 High Achievement of Christopher Dawson
A Historian and His Word: a Life of Christopher Dawson, 1889–1970 by Christina Scott. The Dynamic Character of Christian Culture: Essays on Dawsonian Themes edited by Peter J. Cataldo.“Years ago when I was an undergraduate your Ballad of the White Horse first brought...
Safer in Minnesota
On Essays and LettersSomehow, on my shelves, I have an apparently unread book called Letters from the Country. This book, written by Carol Bly, was published by Penguin in 1981. Carol Bly, as I found out, died in 2007, a well-known figure in Minnesota literary...
Pianarchy
After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance by Kenneth Hamilton. Oxford University Press (New York) 304 pp, $29.95, 2008What if all classical recordings were destroyed tomorrow? Forget the obvious fact that such mass destruction could never be...
Dignity and the Law
In the Shadow of the Law by Kermit Roosevelt Straus & Giroux (New York) 384 pp, $24.00, 2005 Steadily emerging over the past two decades is an impressive collection of numerous books, essays, and academic writings making highly critical pronouncements of the...
The Right’s Exit
Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right by Paul Gottfried. Palgrave Macmillan (New York) 189 pp, $48.00, 2007 The 2008 elections raised important questions about the prospects for conservatism in the United States. Many conservatives express...
The Story of Carlton Hayes
Carlton Hayes, synonymous with European history to generations of twentieth-century American undergraduates, has been largely neglected since his death in 1964. He was a trailblazer, choosing to study what was then the unfashionable field of European history, and...
Knowing It All
Journals: 1952–2000 by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., edited by Andrew Schlesinger and Stephen Schlesinger. The Penguin Press (New York) 894 pp., $40.00, 2007Historians of the American presidency are notorious for composing lists. The five greatest presidents … the five...
The End of America as We Know It?
Immigration and the American Future by Chilton Williamson, Jr. Chronicles Press 307 pp., 2007Chilton Williamson, Jr., former book review editor at National Review and the current senior editor for books at Chronicles, has compiled an invaluable set of essays in...
To Renew and Rebuild Civilization
Restoring the Meaning of Conservatism: Writings from Modern Age by George A. Panichas. ISI Books (Wilmington, Del.) 350 pp., $18.00 paper, 2008 A nationally known conservative figure recently remarked in the presence of this writer, “The American conservative movement...
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.
