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.”

The Dublin Fog: In the Footsteps of the Irish Saints

The Dublin Fog: In the Footsteps of the Irish Saints

“Connie Marshner and Mike Aquilina have both published books this year that give us a window into this long-lost world of ancient Irish Christianity. Each is a discernment project, straining to see through a glass, darkly, how this middle eastern religion came to Ireland, whence it spread even farther abroad.”

Love That Tells the Truth

Love That Tells the Truth

“…the book is studded with several truths that together give a thorough—and loving—response to the lies of modern secular culture.”

Humanely Conservative

Humanely Conservative

“For [the authors], the decline or renewal of the West depends upon whether a conservative humanism can be recovered, whether the wisdom of our ancestors will be rejuvenated and whether we are willing to look back into the past in order to move forward in the future.”

We Still Need Family, Religion, and Tradition

We Still Need Family, Religion, and Tradition

“In the end… it always comes down to the ancient story of secular humanism versus Christian belief. Is there room for yet another book on this theme? Of course there is, and there always will be, so long as fallen man remains fallen.”

Help Yourself

Help Yourself

“All Shrier does—and does well—is to put into words, with ample sourcing, the feelings parents have been sharing with each other online and at the morning bus stop. The kids aren’t growing up. They’re a mess. And so are the therapists. “

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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