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.

Jesuits and Revolutions

“…these… reveal Carola’s gift as a novelist, reminding the reader that the great theological and ecclesiastical questions of the age were debated and decided by flesh-and-blood human beings with normal needs and emotions.”

Taking Movies Seriously, Perhaps Too Seriously

“Dalfonzo’s conception of film as a moral mirror that serves to reveal to us our lapses and failings is certainly founded on an honest and conscientious set of wishes—on that score I have no doubts. I nonetheless suspect that this hope emerges from a blurring of the formal and moral properties of art.”

The Seduction and Perils of Artificial Intelligence

“The inescapable truth is that AI is a transformative technology, even more so perhaps than were the computer and the internet. We are not even close to resolving fundamental questions such as how much autonomy we wish to grant AI and how greatly the adoption of AI will affect our freedom of choice.”

Harvey Mansfield’s Long Dissent

Harvey Mansfield’s Long Dissent

“Mansfield’s central and most important complaint about Harvard… is that its faculty has failed to design or even to articulate the general education that might characterize the educated man.”

Forming the American Imagination

Forming the American Imagination

“Culture-making and imagination formation—in short, the education of the affections—though movies, music, and literature have been left almost entirely to those who view the inherited Western and American tradition with suspicion, if not outright contempt.”

A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons

“His latest book is a collection of essays that reflect the breadth of his interests and the power of his pen. [It] contains delightful ruminations on matters as diverse as his home state of California, his teachers and heroes, domestic culture and politics, foreign affairs, and the miscellaneous diversions that have occupied his lively mind.”

Finding Faith in Fiction

Finding Faith in Fiction

“D’Amico implores us to take time to ‘sink into the wonder’ that our children feel for the big and small details in creation as they see God’s plan unfolding in the world. Parents and caretakers are responsible ‘to invite sacred interpretations of real-life experiences’ by pursuing natural moments of curiosity.”

The Liturgical Key to Tolkien

The Liturgical Key to Tolkien

“…Reinhard makes a unique case that exploring Tolkien’s entire body of work through the lens of the Catholic liturgy as Tolkien experienced it turns up rich insights into both the man and the myths he wove.”

To Find Eyes to See

To Find Eyes to See

“Hren selects earnest classics that have stood the test of time—books that generations of readers have found edifying and moving. But also, in the introduction and conclusion alike, Hren returns to another key point of fiction: it doesn’t just help us see extraordinary truth, although it can. More important is that fiction gives us eyes to see the transcendence of ordinary lives, including our own.”

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.

Kirk saw poetry, fiction, tradition, and restraint as essential to understanding America and preserving its character. In his review of "On America," @cjscalia explores Kirk’s vision of the founding, statesmanship, literature, and the enduring ideas that have shaped the republic.

The Audacious Russell Kirk
Bruce P. Frohnen reviews "On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776" by Russell Kirk. Edited by Michael Lucchese.

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