James Bowman is a Resident Scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Mr. Bowman is well known for his writing on honor, including his book, Honor: A History and “Whatever Happened to Honor,” originally delivered as one of the prestigious Bradley Lectures at the American Enterprise Institute in 2002, and republished (under the title “The Lost Sense of Honor”) in The Public Interest.
Among the other publications to which he has contributed are Harper’s, The Public Interest, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph of London, The Weekly Standard and National Review.
He has worked as a freelance journalist, serving as American editor of the Times Literary Supplement of London from 1991 to 2002, as movie critic of The American Spectator since 1990 and as media critic of The New Criterion since 1993. He has also been a weekly movie reviewer for The New York Sun since the newspaper’s re-foundation in 2002.
Mr. Bowman received B.A. degrees from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and the University of Cambridge in England, where he also did graduate study and received an M.A. in 1979.
[Jim Bowman is] a leading voice on arts, literature, film, and culture. The kind of work Jim does ... is critical because culture really does matter. Culture shapes souls. And our souls, at the end of the day, are what's at stake.
Robert P. George
PUBLICATIONS
Ripley’s Believe It or Else
Published in The New Criterion - February 2020 issue on March 18, 2020
Uncivil Service
Published in The New Criterion - January 2020 issue on February 12, 2020
Just “Politics”
Published in The New Criterion - December 2019 issue on January 9, 2020
Revolutionism Redux, Part III
Published in The New Criterion - November 2019 issue on December 1, 2019
Revolutionism Redux, Part II
Published in The New Criterion - October 2019 issue on November 22, 2019
Revolutionism Redux, Part I
Published in The New Criterion - September 2019 issue on October 30, 2019
Irony of Ironies
Published in The New Criterion - May 2019 issue on May 31, 2019
Avenging Reality
Published in The Washington Examiner on May 3, 2019
Make-Believe Worlds
Published in The New Criterion - April 2019 issue on May 1, 2019
Geography Lessons
Published in The New Criterion - February 2019 issue on February 28, 2019
Twilight of the Unwoke Guys
Published in The New Criterion - January 2019 issue on February 1, 2019
The Progressive Advocacy of Tribal Honor
Published in Quadrant - Jan/Feb 2019 issue on January 19, 2019
Yet It Does Fly
Published in The New Criterion - December 2018 issue on December 31, 2018
Lubitsch in Our Day
Published in The Weekly Standard on December 14, 2018
Civil Was
Published in The New Criterion - November 2018 issue on November 30, 2018
Quid Est Veritas?
Published in The New Criterion - October 2018 issue on October 31, 2018
Constituting Truth
Published in The New Criterion - September 2018 issue on September 30, 2018
Paradise Recycled
Published in The Weekly Standard - August 13, 2018 issue on August 9, 2018
Hungry like the Wolf
Published in The New Criterion - June 2018 issue on July 1, 2018
Principles, Parties, and Polarization
Published in The Weekly Standard - June 25, 2018 issue on June 25, 2018
Stormy Weather
Published in The New Criterion - May 2018 on June 1, 2018
Trying Times
Published in The New Criterion - April 2018 on May 1, 2018
Zip Ties and Media Lies
Published in The New Criterion - March 2018 issue on March 31, 2018
What We Talk About When We Talk About Reputation
Published in The Weekly Standard on March 22, 2018
Review: Lady Bird
Published in The American Spectator on March 6, 2018
Methods of Madness
Published in The New Criterion - February 2018 issue on March 1, 2018
Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Published in The American Spectator on February 22, 2018
Review: Darkest Hour
Published in The American Spectator on February 6, 2018
Putting Down the Big Dog
Published in The New Criterion - January 2018 issue on February 2, 2018
New Directions in Scandalology
Published in The New Criterion - December 2017 issue on January 24, 2018
Spate of Hate
Published in The New Criterion - November 2017 issue on December 15, 2017
Othering Whites
Published in The Weekly Standard - December 4, 2017 issue on December 7, 2017
Right Side vs. White Side
Published in The New Criterion - October 2017 issue on November 1, 2017
Decency for Deplorables
Published in The New Criterion - September 2017 issue on October 18, 2017
Fantasia on a Theme
Published in The Weekly Standard - September 18, 2017 issue on September 21, 2017
Confederate Statues Honor Soldiers’ Valor, Not Beliefs
Published in Washington Examiner on August 18, 2017
Movie Review: Dunkirk
Published in The American Spectator on July 28, 2017
A “Narrative” Outworn
Published in The New Criterion - June 2017 issue on June 30, 2017
A Wilderness of Mirrors
Published in The New Criterion - May 2017 issue on June 7, 2017
Of Leaks, Links and Lies
Published in The New Criterion - April 2017 issue on May 26, 2017
Who Governs America?
Published in The New Criterion - March 2017 issue on April 6, 2017
Cessation of the Oracles
Published in The New Criterion - February 2017 issue on March 23, 2017
Faking it and Making it
Published in The New Criterion - January 2017 issue on February 23, 2017
Groovin’ on the Shock
Published in The New Criterion - December 2016 issue on January 12, 2017
After the Fact
Published in The New Criterion - October 2016 issue on November 3, 2016
The End of the News
Published in The New Criterion - September 2016 issue on September 30, 2016
Scandals and Experts
Published in The New Criterion - May 2016 issue on June 9, 2016
Politics Without Honor
Published in The New Criterion - April 2016 issue on April 30, 2016
A Man or a Mouse?
Published in The New Criterion - March 2016 issue on March 31, 2016
The King of Tastelessness
Published in The New Criterion - February 2016 issue on February 29, 2016
Manners Makyth Man
Published in The New Criterion - January 2016 issue on January 31, 2016
A Topos of Chaos
Published in The New Criterion - December 2015 issue on December 31, 2015
On Their Honor
Published in The Weekly Standard - October 5, 2015 issue on October 7, 2015
A Ghost’s Lament
Published in The Weekly Standard - July 27, 2015 issue on July 23, 2015
All the Latest Fashions
Published in The New Criterion - May 31, 2015 issue on June 9, 2015
Review: ‘Cowardice: A Brief History,’ by Chris Walsh
Published in New York Times on January 11, 2015
Oneself in Others
Published in The Weekly Standard on September 18, 2014
Dean of Contradictions
Published in The Weekly Standard on June 9, 2014
Casualties of War
Published in The Weekly Standard on January 3, 2014
Who’s The Hippest of Them All?
Published in The American Spectator on November 1, 2013
Movie Review: Gravity
Published in JamesBowman.net on October 25, 2013
True Moral Dilemmas Must Connect to Reality
Published in The New York Times on September 29, 2013
Bases Loaded: The Smooth Moves, and Rough Edges, of Baseball’s Infancy
Published in National Review Online on July 29, 2013
Wisdom of the Age
Published in The Weekly Standard on October 1, 2012
The SCOTUS’s Other Mistake
Published in The New Criterion Blog on June 29, 2012
The Dawn of Print
Published in The Weekly Standard on January 30, 2012
Believing Is Seeing
Published in The Weekly Standard on December 19, 2011
Cut and Dried
Published in The New Criterion on September 7, 2011
The Right Thing
Published in The Weekly Standard on January 17, 2011