The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Watch James Panero of the New Criterion discuss “The Urbanity of Russell Kirk” at the 2025 Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.

The Urbanity of Russell Kirk

“The urban fabric must also be mended and darned through continuous upkeep. The city is not yours to experiment. From Russell to Russello, our ancestral spirits cast their shadows whether or not we choose to observe the city of god in the cities of men.”

After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul

“Walsh could give voice to a devastating criticism of the critics of liberal democracy because they forgot the most important aspect of what they chopped to pieces: there can be no analysis of liberal democracy outside the convictions that underpin it, namely mutual respect for the dignity and rights of others. There is no higher purpose possible than the affirmation of the infinite worth of each human being, of each ‘person,’ and the political consequences of that affirmation: to build that insight into the regimes of self-government.”

Liberalism’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

“In this profound work, Walsh engages the friends and foes of liberalism alike to reveal its enduring appeal and resilience. Throughout he urges us to consider liberalism not so much as a stale academic doctrine, but as a lived experience rooted in the core belief of the inviolable dignity of each person as a free and rational being.”

The Paradox of Liberal Resilience

“The defense of inner liberty seems always to come as the long-awaited response and corrective to the modern state’s interventions…”

The Bach Moment

James V. Schall, S. J. Recently, I wandered into Barnes & Noble on M Street in Georgetown intending to purchase the new Compendium of Catholic Social Doctrine. They did not have it. To save money, if that is the purpose of life, I should have left at that moment....

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. 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.

"Delsol’s analysis stands out for the breadth of its perspective. Her essay covers topics as varied as corporatism, the French love for status and strikes, immigration, religion and secularism, populism and the role of intellectuals, Jacobinism, and the EU..."

Cracking the Code to Civilization
@CliffordBates12 on "The Code of Man: Love, Courage, Pride, Family, Country" (2nd Edition) by @waller_newell

Load More

Shop through Regnery
Support the Kirk Center
& University Bookman