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.”

Ten Conservative Principles

Ten Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first...

A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale

Since most modern men have ceased to recognize their own souls, the spectral tale has been out of fashion, especially in America. As Cardinal Manning said, all differences of opinion are theological at bottom; and this fact has its bearing upon literary tastes....

Frights and Chills, Intelligently Rendered

Acquainted With the Night edited by Barbara Roden and Christopher Roden. Ash-Tree Press (British Columbia, Canada), 384 pp., $48.50 cloth; $26.00 paper, 2004. Ash-Tree Press specializes in classic supernatural fiction. From the village of Ashcroft in British Columbia,...

Mr. Shakespeare’s Plays

On Essays and Letters Under the listings of Shakespeare, the Internet abounds in essays, reviews, texts, and comments, almost anything one can imagine about his works and about works explaining his works. My Viking Edition of Shakespeare comes to 1,471 pages. I...

The Odds According to Whom?

Intelligence Was My Line: Inside Eisenhower’s Other Command by Ralph Hauenstein and Donald Markle. Hippocrene Books (New York), 182 pp., $24.95 cloth, 2005. There cannot be many WWII veterans still active in public life like Ralph Hauenstein: nearly ninety-four...

Plucking Out the Heart of Shakespeare’s Mystery

Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare by Claire Asquith. Public Affairs (New York), xviii + 348 pp., $26.00, cloth, 2005. With the publication of Shadowplay, Clare Asquith joins the growing number of scholars who maintain not merely...

Permanent Things Here and Abroad

The University Bookman has long been concerned with issues of the nature of history and historical memory. We are therefore pleased to present in this issue a major review-essay on historical thinking, by Mark G. Malvasi. Malvasi captures the complexity of the debate,...

Current Problems and Eternal Questions

This issue of The University Bookman engages several subjects close to the heart of Russell Kirk’s work and vision in founding this journal. The study of history helps us to determine the underlying reality, what Kirk called the Logos, of the human condition. In...

Our Neighbors and the Ground Beneath Us

We are very pleased to present you with this issue of the University Bookman. As befitting a quarterly devoted to serious books, the reviews cover numerous subjects with, we believe, learning and clear writing in explication of the major issues of our age. Continuing...

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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