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.
Suicide Narratives and the Goodness of Being
“Lockerd, drawing on the literary resources of the Catholic tradition, suggests a different tack: perhaps the essential goodness of reality does not always demand a leap into the unknown, a venture of faith against all odds. Rather, that goodness might be glimpsed everywhere around us.”
The Case Against Buckley
“From the geography of Sharon to the faculty at Yale, Buckley took on an entrenched progressive elite. His greatest achievement was to manifest an alternative American aristocracy, a counter-elite that took full form in the presidency of Ronald Reagan.”
Beyond Stoicism
“The revival in interest in stoicism should not surprise. Stoic philosophy naturally attracts adherents in troubled times: it summons to duty, educates in constancy, and inspires self-mastery because it speaks to perennial human needs.”
Aliens to Life
“…the mundane activities of ‘waiting in line, writing by hand, remote learning, navigation, boredom’ may be the only thing keeping us from becoming machines.”
The Postwar British Conservative Movement
“Kowol identifies three prominent stands within the conservative movement in Britain that, to use Nash’s words, wanted ‘to change it, restore it, preserve it.'”
Leisure and the Lost Ascent
“…leisure cannot be achieved when it is sought as a means to an end, even if that end is something as noble as the salvation of Western civilization. The ultimate root of leisure, divine worship, is beyond the reach of the human will. Though leisure requires willing openness to God’s grace, even that openness is itself a grace.”
William F. Buckley’s Cold War
“The conservative’s vocation is to remind the world that the soul was made for eternity, not bondage in barbed wire. We have the examples of great statesmen, writers, and thinkers to inspire our efforts at defending a humane freedom. The example of Buckley’s life and work, which truly culminated in our last true victory over totalitarianism, is one of the best conservatives could look towards now.”
Climate Realism in an Alarmed Age
“Their authors highlight what is known, unknown, and potentially unknowable in explaining the role of the sun, oceans and ocean currents, and clouds… We also learn of unintended consequences, neglected variables, variables that resist quantification, and a remarkable tendency toward reductionist thinking on all sides of the debate.”
Bring Back the Virtues, Medieval Style
“What does it mean to be made whole in a world that is deeply broken…? This begins with a humbling awareness not only of the virtues that we may realize we lack but also of vices in which, alas, we may abound. And so, Hamman pairs in each chapter a vice and a virtue that counteracts it along with beautiful and sometimes unexpected (to our modern imagination) images of these virtues and vices in Medieval literature and art.”
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.
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