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.”

Words from the Hearth

“Each poem maps a path on the journey by sharing the personal and religious experiences of a young woman falling in love, getting married, and then expecting and welcoming children. As a reader who tends to prefer prose to poetry, I appreciate the narrative arc as well as the opportunity to reminisce, through Reardon’s work, on my own similar experiences. Reardon’s writing is intensely religious, elevating the seemingly mundane aspects of home life to a spiritual level. Because it draws such powerful connections, it invites readers to ponder how even the simplest details of their lives can lead to the divine.”

A Knight of the American West

“His new book is an exciting chivalric adventure and romance, while also being a contemporary American novel set in the Southwest USA. Exceptionally well written, its straightforward crafting is an encouragement to the reader who eagerly returns to its pages.”

Coming to Terms with Sherman

“…Glenn Arbery has contemporary America down cold, the more so since the cultural variations between North and South are far from being as marked as they were even fifty years ago.”

Forgetting the Fifth Horseman

Forgetting the Fifth Horseman

Robert Grant Price looks back at Jane Jacobs’s Dark Age Ahead. According to Jacobs, to vanquish darkness a civilization must constantly reinforce the pillars that support it.

The Beauty of an Integrated Life

The Beauty of an Integrated Life

Gerald lived that fully human life, despite the depredations of our current age. How? By grounding himself in faith, family, and a definite place — the beleaguered New York City of faithful Italian Catholics.

Gerald Russello, Legal Humanist

Gerald Russello, Legal Humanist

Gerald was a rarity in that he energetically lived the Christian virtues he championed. With Josef Pieper, he knew that we are most human when we engage in the humane, and he lived the motto instilled in him by his Jesuit teachers: ad maiorem Dei gloriam. 

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.

@EvieSolheim By the way, the @KirkCenter takes literature, ethics, character formation, & cultural renewal seriously

Encourage you to participate in our @ubookman academic journal & the fellowship of our literary & academic community, enshrining what Dr. Kirk calls “the Moral Imagination”

Load More

Shop through Regnery
Support the Kirk Center
& University Bookman