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.

William F. Buckley Jr.: Literary Figure 

“…the American public intellectual might best be appreciated as a literary figure. Producing about 350,000 words for publication yearly at the peak of his career, Buckley was never at a loss for what to say or how to say it.”

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.”

Natural Law and the Need for Moral Clarity

“Christians need clarity on the way their faith shapes their political activity. This ambiguous book fails to provide that clarity.”

Moral Realism Over and Against Contingent Pluralism 

“The challenge for… all natural law theorists is the proper ordering and integration of the contingencies of a given culture and the universality of the primary precepts of natural law.”

History on Improper Principles

“The condescending attitude—even animus—behind this book is, in fact, among the reasons Trump came to power in the first place. Voters, clearly sick of being sneered at by elites like Lichtman and his colleagues in the established commentariat, have turned to populism as an outlet for their frustrations.”

The Wolfe Who Cried Kirk

In the pages of the once-respectable New Republic, Alan Wolfe has written a scurrilous attack on Russell Kirk in the guise of a review of the recently published collection entitled The Essential Russell Kirk. The review is noteworthy not for its ugliness or completely...

Russello Interview

Gerald Russello has done an interview with John J. Miller at National Review Online discussing his new book on Kirk's thought.

Nash Heritage Lecture

Senior Fellow George H. Nash spoke at the Heritage Foundation on June 22, 2007 to give the Russell Kirk Lecture on Kirk's life and legacy and to celebrate the release of The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays. You can view the lecture or listen to the MP3 audio...

Is Life Worth Living?

Concluding a public lecture, Russell Kirk once assured his listeners: “If you look for the Supernatural, you will find it. I promise you: I have.” From the concluding chapter of Kirk's third-person autobiography.In some ages, what Thoreau says is true:...

Two Essays on the Imagination

We have added to the web site two pieces by Russell Kirk that touch on the moral imagination. First, “The Moral Imagination,” a 1981 essay that describes the concept. Second is “Is Life Worth Living?” the epilogue of Kirk’s autobiography, The Sword of...

Wall Street Journal

We were pleased to see the aptly titled op-ed “The Conservative Mind” by Peter Berkowitz in The Wall Street Journal on May 29, 2007. Very clearly written and helpful.

The Moral Imagination

The moral imagination is an enduring source of inspiration that elevates us to first principles as it guides us upwards towards virtue and wisdom and redemption. In the franchise bookshops of the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred eighty-one, the shelves are...

Returning to the Real

On Essays and LettersHenri de Lubac, the great French Jesuit theologian, had a collection of nineteen letters that he had received from the French historian of philosophy Étienne Gilson (Letters of Étienne Gilson to Henri de Lubac [Ignatius, 1988]). After Gilson’s...

The Irreconcilable Faces of French Conservatism

Impossible Conservatism [Le Conservatisme impossible: Libéraux et réactionnaires en France depuis 1789] by François Huguenin. La Table Ronde (Paris), 395 pp., €21.50, 2006. While in America, defining and redefining conservatism has long been a conservative pastime,...

The Book Gallery

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

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