June 21, 2006

Conservatism's Encyclopedia

American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia has been out a few months. The massive, 997-page tome gets reasonable coverage in the NY Times:

Sixteen years in the making, American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia appears with American conservatism, the political movement, warring over its future direction.

"We've gone from history's adversary to destiny's child, but governing has brought a whole new level of challenge," said Jeffrey O. Nelson, publisher of ISI Books, the conservative press in Wilmington, Del., that produced the encyclopedia. Criticizing what he called the "big education, big spending, big war, big government" conservatism of Republican leaders, Mr. Nelson said he hoped that the book, whose list price is $35, would help the movement return to its small-government roots.

"If conservatism is going to succeed and thrive in the 21st century," he said, "it's got to look more like the conservative tradition as expressed in this book than the conservatism currently practiced in Washington."

Those people toiling in the capital trenches may not recognize the conservatism represented here. The book omits familiar names like Ann Coulter, Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove.

It includes the journals University Bookman, circulation 2,600, and First Things. It gives Willmoore Kendall, a political scientist who died in 1967, three times as much ink as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Those proportions are appropriate, said a former student of Mr. Kendall, William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of National Review, who called the reference book "terrific."

Reporter Jason DeParle focuses too much on what was left out: Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, conservatism and race relations. Like most encyclopedias this is a living project with future editions in the works. The ability to dig deep into American conservative thought without needing 50 years of National Review issues is a wonderful accomplishment.

"An A-to-Z Book of Conservatism Now Weighs In"

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