The continual focus on matters of wording at the “Colloque Lippmann,” which might seem at fi rst consideration trivial, attested to the importance of developing a single rubric to encompass the various members of an ideological group. The relationship between movements and terminology is reciprocal: just as movements create terms to describe the projects they have undertaken, terms provide a conceptual umbrella around which their disparate members can unite. Later generations would develop additional allegiances around the terms “classical liberalism,” “libertarianism,” and “conservatism” and engage in ongoing battles about how best to defi ne the set of beliefs they shared. The failure of the participants in the “Colloque Lippmann” at this moment to name themselves generated a problem that would plague the movement in later years, as in the absence of a shared reference its members increasingly identifi ed themselves with divergent labels and focused intensively on the differences their respective choices entailed.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 186