The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
Support the University Bookman during our annual Kirktober Fundraiser, and receive an audio copy of Kirk’s short story, What Shadows We Pursue.
Kirktober 2025: James Panero and Adam Simon on the Haunted House
October 28, 2025
On Tuesday, October 28, at 6:00 PM, you are invited to join University Bookman editor Luke Sheahan, Hollywood screenwriter Adam Simon, and New Criterion executive editor James Panero, as they explore the theme of the haunted house in gothic literature and its relationship to conservative thought and imagination.
Register for this free webinar here.
In Defense of Maintenance
According to Vinsel and Russell, “The Innovation Delusion is the false belief that the pursuit of innovation and novelty will lead us into the promised land of growth and profit when, in reality, it will lead us to ignore the ever-accumulating pile of deferred maintenance and infrastructural debt—and, in the process, lead individuals toward burnout and our society to accelerating levels of exploitation and inequality.”
Marginal No More: Willmoore Kendall as Essential Conservative
“Owen’s biography invites those of us who still hope to defend the American political tradition to abandon the caricature of Kendall and to engage with him as one of the most important interpreters of the meaning and significance of America.”
In Defense of Divine Justice
“Yes, God is loving, benevolent, and merciful, but he is also demanding and strict. This is a message that pervades the New Testament just as much as the Old.”
Sowing Seeds in Useless Fields
“The drawing and quartering of liberal arts is the death of learning. The politics of special interests and the politicization of classrooms by activists posing as educators tilts the classroom towards indoctrination, ‘the dark and evil twin of teaching.'”
Comics and Kids: A Review of Freiheit!
“Recently, I interviewed my nine-year-old son, Ezra, to learn what he liked about [Freiheit!], and graphic novels in general.” – Jeffrey Wald
Christopher Dawson and Cultural Crisis
“Stuart makes the case for Dawson as one of the most significant sociologists of culture in the twentieth century.”
Christopher Dawson on the Causes of Culture
“Dawson’s greatest virtue… is a non-ideological focus on how religion plays a central role in cultural unity.”
The Cultured Mind of Christopher Dawson
“Always in [Dawson’s] work is a sense of the creative interactions between religion and culture, between past and present, between man and his environment, between the material and the spiritual. Dawson had the confidence and humility of a polymath.”
Theologian of the Heart
On the passing of Pope Benedict XVI, we rerun this review essay by Religion Editor David Bonagura, which was originally published on October 20, 2008.
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.