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.”

A Foreign Policy for (Probably Not Very Many) Americans

“Men of Kalidu, the centuries look down upon you!” So cried His Excellency, Manfred Arcane,Minister Without Portfolio to his Mightiness Achmet XI, Hereditary President of Hamnegri and Sultan in Kalidu. This day the wise and virtuous Minister, confidential servant to...

‘And Therefore as Stranger Give It Welcome’

‘And Therefore as Stranger Give It Welcome’

Russell Kirk’s Ghostly Fiction Invites Us to Embrace and Live the MysteryIf I say the word “ghost” at a polite gathering (coffeehouse, cocktail party, a friend’s wedding reception), some will recoil, albeit perhaps only slightly. How, they’ll ask with polite but...

The Sword of Education

The Sword of Education

Of the voluminous corpus of Russell Kirk’s writings, no small amount concerns the subject of education. Kirk counted in his memoirs that over a span of five decades he had authored “some hundreds of essays, articles, and newspaper columns,” as well as three books...

From Tradition to ‘Values Conservatism’

A Sympathetic Critic’s View of Kirk’s LegacyI suspect I might have been asked to join this distinguished company for a very specific reason. Unlike most of the other contributors, I am not considered entirely in agreement with my subject. This certainly does not mean...

The Many Roots of American Order

The Many Roots of American Order

Nearly four decades ago, Catherine Bowen wrote a delightful little book about the Constitutional Convention of 1787 entitled Miracle at Philadelphia. The “miracle” was that a diverse group of strong-willed, political leaders could, within a few months, produce a...

Lost Causes and Gained Causes

Russell Kirk’s Legacy After 15 Years When conservative man of letters Russell Kirk (1918–1994) died nearly 15 years ago, he had been honored by Presidents and friends great and small, quoted by the learned, and lauded as the author of one of the seminal works in...

Remembering Russell Kirk

Remembering Russell Kirk

Russell Kirk was born 90 years ago last October, and in 2009 we remember the 15th anniversary of his death. Conservatism has changed, and changed again, in the intervening years. The mid-1990s were the years of the Gingrich revolution in the Congress, and of Patrick...

New Interview

The Bookman has posted a new exclusive interview with M. Edward Whelan, III president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, on judicial activism and other topics.

Is Conservatism Dead?

A symposium in response to “Conservatism is Dead” by Sam TanenhausIs conservatism dead? Sam Tanenhaus has recently published an essay in The New Republic arguing that conservatism is indeed dead, at least the conservative “movement” as American politics has known it....

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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