To summarize our earlier review, this is one of the most comprehensively educational works we've ever come across.

We'd wanted to include the full dust jacket blurb for the 1978 1st Edition, ahead of its complete 3-Volume Topics List, as an additional public service (since Amazon doesn't happen to display an editorial review for these scarce but valuable works) -- but we were concerned about exceeding our 1,000 word limit.

So, here it is as a supplement (again, we'd like to REQUEST A COMPARATIVE REVIEW from anyone familiar with the additions and changes incorporated into the 12/2001 2nd Edition; diplomats and/or scholars, please pass this along):

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"The Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy is a selective reference work containing specially commissioned essays that explore concepts, themes, doctrines, and distinctive policies in the history of American foreign relations. The essays range in coverage from broad concepts such as isolationism and national self-determination to specific topics such as the Monroe Doctrine and the China Lobby.

This topical approach presents to serious readers - students, academicians, government officials, journalists, politicians, and the interested layman - an authoritative compendium of essays that analyze the development, application, and meaning of basic concepts in foreign policy.

The ninety-five essays in this volume are all based on the most recent scholarship, and many of them deal with topics that have not previously been the subject of consistent investigation and systematic analysis. Even in those essays that deal with material that has received considerable scholarly attention, the authors offer original syntheses and interpretations. All topics are discussed within a meaningful historical context and in a manner not available elsewhere.

The authors were not required to adhere to any standard methodology or ideological model. Among the foremost scholars in their respective fields, they have written with complete freedom. The result is not the conventional chronological account of American foreign policy but wide-ranging discussions that cover a broad political spectrum, from Left to Right.

The Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy: Studies of the Principal Movements and Ideas reflects the importance of American foreign policy in the contemporary world. It is a comprehensive survey of thoughtful analyses, which enriches and clarifies foreign policy and the concepts and rhetoric associated with it. It is an undertaking unique in the historiography of American foreign relations."