This new reference work on American politics offers a collection of 245 essays focusing on American political institutions and “international and domestic economic, social, and cultural conditions” (xiv). Topics cover government institutional structure, concepts, ideologies, movements, and selected laws considered to be particularly important in American politics. Other essay topics cover selected groups and organizations, economic and social issues and policies, and foreign countries and their relationships with the United States. The essays, which include cross references and bibliographies, provide historical background and contemporary description and analysis. The work has a subject index and “topical outline of entries” located at the end of volume 2. Contributors are mainly American and British scholars in political science, international relations, economics, public affairs, sociology, and communications.

The 2001 edition of The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World served as a starting point for the new work and source of many essays. The editors of the new work incorporated entries that they decided could be reprinted or updated. In some cases this means that nearly the exact essay is used in the new book with little or no update to the text and its bibliography. For example the essay “Deregulation” is a reprint, except for 6 words alluding to the financial crisis of 2008, and the bibliography has three references from the 1980s and mid-1990s. This essay could have been updated with information about the deregulation of the financial industry in 1999, and the bibliography could have included more recent references. Also reprinted with little or no variation are essays for “Great Society,” “Federalism,” and “Finance, International.” Reprints may be understandable if this was a new edition of the 2001 work, but the impression is that the new work is completely new until you read the introduction and examine the text.

The wide variety of topics indicates the broad perspective taken in this work on American political discourse related to public policy and philosophy of government. Readers will find essays on issues such as liberalism, conservatism, abortion, health care, marriage and family, child care, charter schools, climate change, immigration, gun control, AIDS, and domestic violence. Also, examples of economic issues covered are topics such as minimum wage, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, business-government relations, Walmart, capitalism, and economic policy since World War II. Aside from two entries on state politics and urban sprawl, this work does not treat state and local politics in a comprehensive way. The presidents beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt are treated in separate essays. The only other individuals with entries are Martin Luther King, Jr. and Osama Bin Laden. No women have essays, although there is one entry for first ladies.

There is no general essay focusing on US foreign policy in American politics. Essays deal with US relationships with Japan, India, Africa, Pakistan, Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Several countries, such as Iran, Israel, both Koreas, and China, have separate essays that focus on political developments with some mention of US relations. There is an essay that focuses generally on human rights and humanitarian concerns.

Overall this new collection serves as a guide to key issues in American politics, but the reliance on many essays and bibliographies written 12 years ago weakens the work even though the majority of the entries are more current. The criteria for selection of topics in foreign relations related to politics are unclear, and the biographical entries beyond the presidents are minimal. Recommended with reservations.