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.

The Enduring Sources of the Permanent Things

“The result is less a polemic against the present than a gentle yet firm invitation to remember what we have nearly forgotten—that the good life is not a solitary pursuit of personal authenticity but a shared enterprise of commitment, sacrifice, and mutual regard. What makes the book so especially resonant is its refusal to treat these themes as abstract ideals.”

Talking Classical Education

“It is an introduction to the pedagogical life of a classical school. It is a philosophical argument for a particular approach to being a classical teacher. It is a work of cumulative experiences which manifest in teacherly wisdom. And it is a treatise aimed at critiquing the Modern Industrial Model of Education which has characterized the last several decades of American schooling.”

Liberal Education and Its Critics

“Taylor’s biggest concern appears as he nears his conclusion and is not so much that the humanities envy the sciences but that the humanities are largely responsible for their own destruction. He writes, ‘…perhaps the very project of thinking about our values—a project at the heart of the arts and humanities broadly conceived—is either feared or no longer widely valued in our society….there is a powerful and increasingly unselfconscious utilitarianism at work.’”

Evil and Good in Cormac McCarthy

Evil and Good in Cormac McCarthy

“Vereen M. Bell’s primary contention is that McCarthy presents us with a dead end—confronting us, in a kind of stoical existentialism, with the universality of death and non-being.”

TIME Marches On… Past 100 

TIME Marches On… Past 100 

“As TIME ‘goes on,’ therefore, and we commemorate its achievements, the career  of Henry Robinson Luce, the ‘Man of TIME’s Century,’ deserves recognition.”

The Missing Virtue

The Missing Virtue

“In [the book], the virtue of humility is presented as the antithesis of, and thus an antidote to, the narcissism that can adversely affect interpersonal dynamics…”

Remaking Cold War Diplomacy

Remaking Cold War Diplomacy

“[Eames’s] latest book… takes a transnational approach to the nuclear 1980s by examining the strategic coordination of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher during the waning days of the Cold War.”

The Achievement of the Irish Poets

The Achievement of the Irish Poets

“…for Devlin, as for MacGreevy and Coffey, the purpose of art, including that of literary expression, was to call forth wonder, beauty, goodness, and truth, which required drawing from the rich stores of both philosophy and faith.”

The Last European

The Last European

“[The book] is a fascinating portrait of the collapse of the glorious cultural world of the first half of the 20th century, one that has much relevance to what is happening to the culture of the West today.”

A “Sputnik Moment” for Civics

A “Sputnik Moment” for Civics

“The key to effective civics is for teachers to engage students in ‘conversations based on primary sources.’ Immersion in such conversations, the authors contend, ‘makes us feel part of the story, making it ours too.'”

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.

.@JM_Butcher himself admits that there are in fact important divisions within American society, but he believes that “Americans are united on some very important questions that are driving debates in statehouses, schoolhouses, and even your house.” In this, as in nearly all that

Despite [Kirk's] and others’ efforts to prevent further decline in transcendent beliefs, more than a century later, it is clear that those Americans who adhere to them represent a small and frequently marginalized minority. @fhmcclatchey must be counted among their number, for he

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