The University Bookman at 60: A Retrospective
This year, the University Bookman celebrates its 60th year of publication. Historian George Nash charts the journal from its origins in an arrangement between Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley Jr. to its evolution into a respected source for cultural commentary from a conservative perspective in his essay “Defending the Right and the Good.” Looking back at the challenges to its continuity, Nash finds several lessons, among them:
The University Bookman’s story exemplifies what can happen when a person of conservative persuasion takes a stand and casts a proverbial pebble into a pond. No one can predict what the consequences may be. I suspect that Kirk often thought of this as he edited his low-key periodical and watched its ripples press outward with each issue.
More From Our Highlights & News
Interview with Jeff Nelson
Josh Lewis, host of Saving Elephants podcast, interviewed Kirk Center CEO Jeff Nelson on how he came to know and work for Russell Kirk and Kirk’s major contributions to articulating the American conservative tradition. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss the...
Talks Engaging Kirk’s Thought Elsewhere
Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Ministries, delivered the 2023 Russell Kirk Lecture at the Heritage Foundation on "The Breakdown of the Tocquevillean Equilibrium." Saving Elephants podcast interviewed John Wood Jr. on finding commonality between Kirk and...
Otto von Habsburg Foundation connects with the Kirk Center
In a 1959 letter to Russell Kirk, Otto von Habsburg, Archduke of Austria-Hungary, wrote: “I am very much interested to learn from your letter that you devote so much attention to the development of [the journal] ‘Modern Age.’ I think that you do here a tremendously...
The Great Books podcast features Luke Sheahan
On The Great Books podcast, host John J. Miller was joined by Luke Sheahan, editor of The University Bookman, to discuss Robert Nisbet’s landmark book, The Quest for Community. Sheahan gives a wonderfully lucid presentation on Nisbet’s argument that the human drive...