The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

What the American Revolution Secured: Order, Justice, and Freedom

Throughout the semiquincentennial year celebrating America’s independence, The University Bookman will invite a range of writers and speakers to contribute to a series drawing upon Russell Kirk’s work on the American Revolution and the constitutional order it secured.

A Heroic Little Sparrow Shines Brightly in the Dark World of Children’s Literature

“The story is as delightful and charming as it sounds, recounting the odyssey of a virtuous sparrow named Passer who must move his family to a new home after ‘big yellow machines’ appear at his home.”

Ulyssean Interrogations at Dusk, or Slowing Down at 65

“Odysseus himself was offered immortality by the nymph Calypso—and refused it. He chose instead to return to his wife Penelope, a mortal woman who would age. He chose to return to a finite life marked by loss, memory, and longing; and in that choice, I have always thought, lies his greatest courage—and his deepest wisdom… I hope and I believe that I would have made the same Ulyssean decision.”

From the Man Who Loved America

“Angelo Codevilla advanced and argued for an anti-Wilsonian approach to both American foreign and American domestic policy.”

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,...

A Resurrection Apologetic

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N. T. Wright. Harper Collins (San Francisco) 240 pp., $29.50, cloth, 2006. Tom Wright is the author of many scholarly and popular books, including a popular-level translation and commentary of the New Testament (the...

A Case for Insular History

The Discovery of Islands by J. G. A. Pocock. Cambridge University Press (Cambridge), 358 pp., $75.00, 2006. Each generation revises history to fit its own needs and preoccupations because,while the past itself remains constant, the prism through with it is seen...

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.

Smithian Wisdom on Demand
@mungowitz on "Just Sentiments: 22 More Smithian Essays" Edited by Daniel B. Klein and @erikwmatson
CL Press/Fraser Institute

From the Man Who Loved America
Chuck Chalberg on "Fighting Enemies Foreign and Domestic: The Legacy of Angelo M. Codevilla," Edited by @RpwWilliams @EncounterBooks

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