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.

John Lukács: The Consciousness—and Conscience—of an Historian

“Rather, ‘history’ is an irreducibly human cognitive and moral activity that shapes identity, yields personal and collective meaning, and embodies how people understand their present and future. For Lukács, every person is a ‘historian’ because all human persons live with memories and interpretations of their past.”

Continually Revising History

“[The book] is a rich resource for Voegelin scholars to consult for their own academic and intellectual pursuits.”

G. K. Chesterton, Friend of Truth

“Each essay is well worth reading on its own, which should be the case whether you are a trained philosopher or something less—or more—than that.”

Claiming the Classical Tradition

Claiming the Classical Tradition

“The book stands as a powerful argument that the Classical Tradition has been essential to the lived Black experience in the United States for four centuries. And consequently, the book asserts that any attempts to deny such a connection severs Black Americans from a heritage to which they owe much and from which they will find a treasure trove of wisdom.”

The Geography of the Peace at Eighty

The Geography of the Peace at Eighty

“…Spykman’s book was meant to educate American policymakers and citizens on the permanent geopolitical factors that should guide U.S. foreign policy into the future. Some of Spykman’s ideas resonate in 2024.”

Russell Kirk and Japan: Enamored by the Dead

Russell Kirk and Japan: Enamored by the Dead

“Kirk’s multifaceted persona, blending serious conservative thought with a penchant for the mysterious, underscores the complexity of his intellectual legacy, which I continue to try to unravel even today.”

Is Life Worth Living?

Is Life Worth Living?

“Both on authority and through his own insights and experiences, Kirk had come to understand that there exists a realm of being beyond this temporal world and that a mysterious providence works in human affairs—that man is made for eternity. Such knowledge had been consolation and compensation for sorrow.”

Recovering the Person

Recovering the Person

“[Bailie] examines this impending, all-too-possible crisis facing Western societies by studying the construction, evolution, and coming apocalypse of the sovereign self.”

Contra Materialism and Gnosticism

Contra Materialism and Gnosticism

“Jones argues that our elites, by which he means ‘the most influential people in the richest parts of the world,’ have undermined our flourishing as human beings, and that we must rediscover our true meaning and purpose if we wish to achieve real happiness.”

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.

Register for our next book gallery on June 22, 2026:
Russell Kirk On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776

The Midwestern Gothic Stories of Eric Cyr
@NadyaWilliams81 on "Here It Snows in June & Other Stories" by Eric Cyr. @WisebloodBooks

And I Will Go to the Altar of God
Jesse Russell reviews "On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular" by Jonathan Sheehan. @PrincetonUPress

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