The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Defending the Christian Faith

“In 100 Tough Questions For Catholics: Common Obstacles To Faith Today… David G. Bonagura, Jr. gives bite-sized answers to dozens of big questions about the faith.”

Political Economy Before Adam Smith

“…[the book] is a compilation of various tracts on the intersection of commerce and statecraft—many of which are snapshots of McCulloch’s own free-market beliefs—that serve as a compelling precursor of Smithian political economy.”

Science and Meaning: Parallel Tracks?

“Science is not the sort of activity that can answer the question, ‘Does life have meaning?’ To expect science to answer that question is like expecting your plumber to tell you whether installing fancier bathroom fixtures will make you happier.”

Geopolitics and the Making of the Modern World

“Brands’s book should find a ready audience among those interested in developments in the international scene over the last century. It is particularly effective in dealing with the threat that China’s emerging power and influence pose to the West today…”

Tory Violence and Liberal Weakness: An Appreciation of George Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England

by John P. Rossi | Jun 4, 2023

“Dangerfield’s portrait of those critical years before World War I is not a full scale scholarly investigation of the dramatic events of the issues that divided England but is rather an imaginative impressionistic portrait of the period…”

Will Blowing Up the Universities Really Work?

by Jeffrey Folks | Jun 4, 2023

“Increasingly, a long and seemingly irrelevant college education… must seem like a paper belt.”

A Modern Dostoevsky–Almost

by Jeffrey Wald | May 28, 2023

“Knausgaard’s latest novel… is perhaps the closest we can hope to come to Dostoevsky this side of nineteenth century Russia.”

Kirk and Del Noce: Two Philosophers Connected through History

by Carolina Riva Posse | May 28, 2023

“The connections between Del Noce and Kirk provide fresh insights to wade through today’s cultural, philosophical, and political upheavals.”

Liberal Education in the Progressive University

by Jason Jewell | May 21, 2023

“In opposition to much of the postmodern academy, Drees puts forward the quest for objective knowledge as the standard for responsible scholarship.”

Helping Those Who Help Themselves

by Frank Filocomo | May 21, 2023

“…what does it mean to be compassionate, and who are the needy?”

Essentially Lying About the Left and Right

by Lee Trepanier | May 14, 2023

“Ideology allows us to hide the fact that we are really a tribal people…”

The Troubled Science of the Middle East

by Sam Sweeney | May 14, 2023

“Sectarian identity does indeed fluctuate in importance in the Middle East, but it is always present not far under the surface…”

All Too Human After All

by Jesse Russell | May 7, 2023

“…Edward S. Cooke, Jr. attempts to provide not only a new history of world art, but a new (potentially very controversial), innovative method of examining human cultural artifacts.”