Last week, Encounter author Wilfred M. McClay was announced as the winner of the competitive Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) Conservative Book of the Year award for Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story. In their press release, excerpted below, ISI’s president Charlie Copeland offered high praise for the winning title.

“The Conservative Book of the Year judges have made a fine choice. Land of Hope is the antidote to anti-American narratives like Howard Zinn’s influential A People’s History of the United States. But that does not mean McClay’s book offers its own propaganda to counter Zinn’s. Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal may have said it best when he called Land of Hope ‘the most balanced, nuanced history of the United States I have read in the past fifty years.’ The message in Land of Hope is exactly what our divided country needs.”

Copeland added: “The Conservative Book of the Year award is especially important now. Conservatives are being ‘de-platformed’ everywhere, from college campuses to Twitter. And mainstream book awards like the Pulitzer and the National Book Award might as well post signs that say, ‘NO CONSERVATIVES NEED APPLY.’ In such a heated climate, it is crucial to celebrate thoughtful conservatives like Professor McClay for their outstanding work.”

ISI received more than 130 nominations for the 2020 Conservative Book of the Year award.

Read more about the award here.