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 Paradoxical Ideology

The Paradoxical Ideology

“Rousseau’s ideas have influenced both theorists and practitioners of democracy, such as Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, and Jacques Maritain. For Finley, the common thread in this group is belief in the ideology of democratism. For each of these figures, democracy is perceived as the ultimate end for society, akin to religious salvation, and only an elite-controlled oligarchy can represent society’s ‘general will.’ The irony is that this oligarchy employs undemocratic means in the name of democracy to achieve its objectives.”

The Paradoxical Ideology

Democratism and False Equivalence

“Finley argues that advocates of ‘democratism’ have always argued for democracy not as a regime of popular government but as a set of political norms of enlightened public sharing commitments to further liberation from traditional bonds.”

Retaining Humanity in the Age of A.I.

Retaining Humanity in the Age of A.I.

“…a more important consideration is how schools can teach students to focus on the value of connecting with other human beings instead of disproportionately focusing on electronics.”

Recovering the Idea of Statesmanship

Recovering the Idea of Statesmanship

“The originality of Burtka’s approach lies in his effort to restore an even more old-fashioned approach, that of the ‘mirror of princes,’ as the key to taking statesmanship seriously once again.”

A Gentleman Out of Moscow

A Gentleman Out of Moscow

“Maddocks is an able guide as she wanders through the adventures, disappointments, and adjustments that Rachmaninoff would experience from his escape in 1917 to his death in 1943.”

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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