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.”

France and the Problem of Abstraction

“…French people’s love for ideas, indeed for ideology, often puts them at odds with the pragmatic requisites of a mature democracy and with reality itself. France is, as she very aptly puts it, ‘a country of dreamers who fall into melancholy when reality catches up with them.’ But far from being merely a psychological explanation for French unhappiness, this idealism is the key to a political understanding of our complicated relationship with the very principle of democracy.”

Humane Literature and the Divided Soul

“…White’s debut book… unites a memoir in fragments with a syllabus of literary works on the question of how to harmonize our duties and desires.”

Antisemitism, a Foreign Tradition

“…Nadell substitutes an explanation of what antisemitism is and how to chart it with a tacit theory that antisemitism always exists and always makes life miserable. For those reasons, [it] is a book best left unread.”

Political Economy Before Adam Smith

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 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

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…”

The Context for Human Dignity

The Context for Human Dignity

“While the twentieth century was still sporadically marked by remnants of Christian influence and dominance, the twenty-first has seen the final divorce of the secular and sacred, and the consequences are evident. What Leo XIII warned of, the evils he battled, have been let loose, paradigmatically captured by Artificial Intelligence which poorly imitates and devalues that which makes us essentially human… We would do well then to read Hittinger’s book in reflecting on how to face these challenges.”

Protestant Institutionalism and Christian America

Protestant Institutionalism and Christian America

“…Smith provides a thematic overview of the period between 1800 and 1860. His book is somewhat unique in that whereas many debates concern the religious character of the Founding or the Founders, Smith is concerned with the period afterwards.”

Reviving the Vanished Voice of a Maker

Reviving the Vanished Voice of a Maker

“Dorothy L. Sayers was the premiere female Christian intellectual of twentieth-century Britain, whose foremost accomplishments include being a pioneering detective novelist and religious dramatist, a daring translator of Dante, and a trenchant social critic who advanced a sacramental notion of work against technocratic utilitarianism.”

A Scholar for all Seasons

A Scholar for all Seasons

“With this kind of project, the challenge for the author is to craft a thesis that justifies the collection of essays and brings unity to the collection. Wood has done so as well as anyone might. The thesis of the book makes a statement about the Christian church in America.”

The Formless Void of the Therapeutic

The Formless Void of the Therapeutic

“We are experiencing, in the post-modern era, a slow-motion clash of visions: one which looks outward to the logos; another which finds meaning emerging from within. We need some sense of hope that psychological man does not extinguish what is best about us. To find hope, we must begin with understanding. To find understanding, we might begin with Philip Rieff and with Rieffian thought as developed in this excellent book.”

The Book Gallery

A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.

Me happily @LawLiberty. Why Robert Nisbet matters as much now as he ever did.

@IVMiles @TheRightsWriter @DanJTPitt @ToryAnarchist @DanHugger @lsheahan @KirkCenter @ubookman @heymiller @Hillsdale @ScotBertram

Hace unos meses tuve el placer de reseñar la nueva edición de "The Social Philosophers" de Robert Nisbet. Lo mejor: se publica en un espacio de referencia para mi @ubookman
Ojalá pronto veamos más obras de este gran sociólogo traducidas en España https://goo.su/5eNFJ

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