The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
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.”
After the Republic: Tacitus on the End of a Free State
“…you don’t really have to ‘wonder’ if you’ve lost the republic… This is one of the lessons of the first few paragraphs of Tacitus’ Annals. In this dour, grumpy review of the first decades of the Roman Empire, Tacitus gives us seven signs that the republic is well and truly dead.”
Why Cervantes’ Don Quixote Matters
“Don Quixote makes life the protagonist. The affirmation of life is truly Don Quixote’s quest. The venerable knight-errant seeks more than life from his life.”
After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul
“Walsh could give voice to a devastating criticism of the critics of liberal democracy because they forgot the most important aspect of what they chopped to pieces: there can be no analysis of liberal democracy outside the convictions that underpin it, namely mutual respect for the dignity and rights of others. There is no higher purpose possible than the affirmation of the infinite worth of each human being, of each ‘person,’ and the political consequences of that affirmation: to build that insight into the regimes of self-government.”
Liberalism’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
“In this profound work, Walsh engages the friends and foes of liberalism alike to reveal its enduring appeal and resilience. Throughout he urges us to consider liberalism not so much as a stale academic doctrine, but as a lived experience rooted in the core belief of the inviolable dignity of each person as a free and rational being.”
The Paradox of Liberal Resilience
“The defense of inner liberty seems always to come as the long-awaited response and corrective to the modern state’s interventions…”
Marxism and the Rising Generation
“Gonzalez and Gorka have performed an important service in bringing together a wide range of fact and theory and in establishing a coherent line stretching directly from Marx through many important figures to the present day.”
Cracking the Code to Civilization
“In a world flooded with online influencers, ‘red pill’ rhetoric, and algorithmic posturing, Newell offers something older, wiser, and far superior: a code of manliness rooted in the Western tradition of virtue, character, and service. His message is that true manliness is not a pose or performance; it is the integration of moral and intellectual excellence, what he calls ‘the manly heart.’”
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.”
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.
"Ferenc Hörcher and Dan Pitt... seem timed to match this shift in popular discourse. Intellectual Conservatism offers a history of English political ideas to a new and motivated audience. Limiting focus on Britain paradoxically enhances the book’s usefulness in other countries."
I am most grateful for a perceptive and cogent review of Intellectual Conservatism: From Burke to Scruton by @shawn_whatley via @ubookman.
Link: https://kirkcenter.org/reviews/ideas-matter-now-more-than-ever/
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