[Review] Thomas Keselman and Joseph A. Buttigieg, ed. (2003) European Christian democracy: historical legacies and comparative perspectives

This is a really stimulating book. It mixes chapters from a majority of historians and a minority of political scientists. All twelve of them, despite what seems to have been a light touch on the editorial tiller, address at least a couple of its core themes: the historical roots of pre-war and post-war Christian Democracy; its secularization and subsequent relations with the Church; variations in its strength across the continent; and the extent to which its success may have been the product of a particular conjuncture, the passing of which probably spells decline.