A couple of people have asked about my mash note yesterday on American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. What impresses me most about this volume is its ecumenism. I could imagine the editors of ACE (as they call it) taking a dim view of libertarianism. And yet the entry for “libertarianism” is written by David Boaz of the Cato Institute. The entry for “Mises, Ludwig von” is by the Murray Rothbard. The entry on “Southern conservatism” is by the Mel Bradford. My point is that the entries are animated by a desire for accuracy as well as sympathy. There is no agenda to shift the meaning of conservatism in a certain direction. There is no score settling. There are smart suggestions for further reading. It’s a combination that really seems to work. I’ll be dipping into this book for years.

Interestingly, the book has a lot of dead contributors: Rothbard, Bradford, Russell Kirk. (Happily, David Boaz is still with us!) That goes to show how long it has taken to assemble this massive book–more than a decade. The care is obvious. ACE will be a classic.