The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Watch James Panero of the New Criterion discuss “The Urbanity of Russell Kirk” at the 2025 Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.

The Urbanity of Russell Kirk

“The urban fabric must also be mended and darned through continuous upkeep. The city is not yours to experiment. From Russell to Russello, our ancestral spirits cast their shadows whether or not we choose to observe the city of god in the cities of men.”

Enchanting Criticism: Dana Gioia as Literary Critic 

“Gioia’s latest book is a testament to the persistence of authentic criticism in an age suspicious of and even hostile to literary values.”

The Machine or the Garden?

“What Kingsnorth brilliantly exposes in Against the Machine is how the progressive vision of scientific, industrial, and technological progress is actually destroying the wisdom of the past in its merciless pursuit of perfection. Kingsnorth reminds us of the great taboo of modernity: ‘There is no such thing as a perfect society, and anyone who tries to build one will either go mad or become a tyrant.’”

What Plato Meant

“…Princeton University philosopher and political theorist Melissa Lane explores Plato’s notion of rule and governorship, attempting to refresh the humanistic, liberal reading of Plato’s political theory.”

The Circumnavigation of Eliot

The Circumnavigation of Eliot

“A company of scholars, led by Professor Ronald Schuchard, labored for a decade to produce this monumental scholarly work… The project was brilliantly and painstakingly accomplished, and it is having a marked effect on scholarly studies of Eliot…”

The Waste Land at 100

The Waste Land at 100

“If poets came to speak less clearly in consequence of Eliot’s great reputation, Eliot also reestablished poetry as a way of coming to know reality and to perceive the order of being even amid the wreckage of history. If he staged a revolution, he also made possible a restoration.”

Returning to the Heights of Statesmanship

Returning to the Heights of Statesmanship

“…Mahoney exhorts us to hope for more from our leaders and to demand more from ourselves—more gratitude for great statesmen and the inheritance that they have passed on to us, more openness to human excellence and its importance, more conviction about moral truth, and more rigorous thought about the characteristics of statesmanship.”

Reclaiming Protestantism At Its Best

Reclaiming Protestantism At Its Best

“…the Reformers celebrated by so many churches today shared a far “thicker” vision of society than the American frontier ideal… Theirs was an era of magistracy and hierarchy, not of lone cowboys gazing out upon an untapped wilderness.”

On the Fall of Fated Men

On the Fall of Fated Men

“Ranging over six centuries of invasion, immigration, and royal intrigue, Morris recounts the fascinating tale of that elusive bunch known, quite rightly, as the Anglo-Saxons.”

Society: A Community of Souls

Society: A Community of Souls

“…we must make it our mission to revive the America that Tocqueville so eloquently wrote about: an America characterized by strong social bonds, neighborliness, and a collective willingness to govern ourselves.”

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.

Enchanting Criticism: Dana Gioia as Literary Critic
Oliver Spivey on "Poetry as Enchantment: And Other Essays" by Dana Gioia.
@PaulDryBooks

The Machine or the Garden?
@paul_jkrause on "Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity" by Paul Kingsnorth.
@PenguinBooks @randomhouse

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