Year: 1979
Type: article
Abstract: Alexander DeConde, ed., Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1978. 1138 pp., index. The Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, a three-volume work edited by Alexander DeConde, contains ninety-five essays. As the editor notes, “The essays explore concepts, themes, large ideas, theories, doctrines, and distinctive policies in the history of American foreign relations” (p. xi). There are commendably few errors of fact in the essays, and only a few are so tendentious that they present a distorted picture. (Among the most striking in this regard are “The Monroe Doctrine,” a polemic against its allegedly imperialistic implications that, among other things, does not even discuss the origins of the nonintervention doctrine of 1823, and “Consensus History and Foreign Policy,” even more emotionally negative.) There is no comparable work, making the Encyclopedia almost by its mere existence an important contribution. Scholars will not be entirely satisfied with it as a work of reference—it does not purport to be an encyclopedia in the usual sense—but they may well wish to browse in it, even to assign selected essays to graduate students being introduced to the field.
Source: Diplomatic History
Author: BRADFORD PERKINS
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1999700105