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.”

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.”

Reality Check for Politics

“…Lawrence Mead throws tact out the window and, instead, lays bare our collective failure to properly and honestly address myriad social changes that have occurred since the 1960s—namely, widening cultural difference and group balkanization; unprecedented levels of immigration from the non-West; and the rise of identitarianism, especially from the social justice-Left.”

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.”

Taking to Tolkien

A Hidden Presence: The Catholic Imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien Edited by Ian Boyd, C.S.B and Stratford Caldecott. The Chesterton Press (Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey) 185 pp., $5.95 paper, 2003.It is an exciting time to be an admirer of J. R. R....

Making Good Republicans

The American Republic: Primary Sources edited by Bruce Frohnen. The Liberty Fund, Inc. (Indianapolis, Indiana), 752 pp., $25.00 cloth, $12.00 paper, 2002.   WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT to American undergraduates and law students to make them good republicans? The...

America’s Protestant Roots in History and Theory

Protestantism and the American Founding edited by Michael Zuckert and Thomas Engeman. Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, Indiana) 296 pp., paper, 2004. SINCE OUR FOUNDING, Americans have understood ourselves in powerfully and pervasively religious terms. Intellectuals have...

Sowing the Seeds of Liberty

Educating for Liberty: The First Half-Century of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute by Lee Edwards. Regnery Publishing (Washington, D.C.), viii + 343 pp., $27.95 cloth, 2003. A little over a half-century ago, while Russell Kirk was in the midst of researching and...

Welcome and Farewells

Publisher's NoteFor the past decade I have been privileged to follow in my esteemed father-in-law’s footprints and edit this unique quarterly book review journal. It has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience. As you, our loyal readers know, the last two...

What Conservatism Is For

A Luncheon Talk at the Philadelphia Society 40th Anniversary Gala in Chicago May 1, 2004 by Annette Kirk We all know that no one can stand in for Stan Evans—so when Bill Campbell asked me to do this, I immediately called Stan and said, “I need a story, a...

A Tribute to Russell Kirk

The death of Russell Kirk is an irreplaceable loss not only to his family and friends but to this review as well. For over thirty-three years he edited this publication, reminding us that education has for its ultimate ends wisdom and virtue. We present this special...

Correcting the Record

In her enjoyable new book, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First, Mona Charen quotes the response of the historian Henry Steele Commager to President Reagan’s famous “evil empire” speech in March 1983....

The Splendor of Dedication

At the time of death, the tangibility is felt first in mourning . . . Mourning is real and honest. Indeed we mourn our loss of Russell Kirk. But other threads are woven into the fabric of loss. Our sense of loss should be convertible into equal measures of gratitude...

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

Load More

Shop through Regnery
Support the Kirk Center
& University Bookman