As a grandchild of paternal Lithuanian immigrants and maternal French immigrants, I was always interested in my heritage. Information on French history abounds but my knowledge of my Lithuanian roots was totally dependent on vague stories repeated by my father that were difficult to put in a historic context. This book clarified and totally collaborated the stories that I grew up with and deepened my respect for this amazing freedom-loving country.

This book is important to Lithuanian historiography because this is the only English title I know that deals with Lithuania in the interwar years. Other titles, like von Rauch's book, group the three Baltic states' history together under one title. This book is solely dedicated to Lithuanian interwar history.

The book is well written by prestigious authors who have done their research. The notes at the end are extensive. The book is clearly written. Even a novice in Lithuanian history would have an easy time following this volume.

The book does an excellent job of showing the pivotal role Lithuania had in the eastern European balance of power between Germany and the USSR versus the Polish, French, British alliance. The book reminds of the title 'Lithuania: The Rebel Nation' by Stanley Vardys. The authors do a great job of clearly explaining the plight of Lithuania in this balance of power.

Another interesting note is that some of the authors in this edited book are from Lithuania. It is interesting to see the view of homegrown Lithuanians on this time period in Lithuanian history. They rate high in their objectivity.

Anyone interested in Lithuanian history should own this book.

Alfred Senn is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison History Dept., and that is where he first developed his course entitled "The Political History of the Modern Olympics." This book is the result of two decades of research and interviews of athletes, sports federation administrators, and Olympic officials beginning during the US boycott of the Moscow Games in 1980. This book is a comprehensive presentation of much of the information from his lectures, and forms the basic text of the course for undergraduate students. Readers within academia will benefit from its quality scholarship and solid documentation. The general public will enjoy its easy readability and gain a broader knowledge of the "behind the scenes" maneuvering and politicking of the leaders of international sport. What this book can offer that others often cannot is the view from the other side of the "Iron Curtain." Senn is a Soviet scholar by training and his book includes a large amount of material gathered exclusively from Soviet files and interviews, a resource closed to many other authors. In the final pages of the book he devotes considerable attention to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the athletic consequences of that disintegration for the Eastern European sports "machines." I strongly recommend this text to anyone wishing to expand his or her knowledge of the workings of the International Olympic Committee and the political conflicts that have arisen over the years within the Games themselves or the Olympic structure.

I read this book for my term paper for 8th grade on the Politics of the Olympics. We could choose any topic from history, so that's what I chose, because I'm a swimmer. It was really helpful and interesting. It's sad there's so much fighting that has nothing to do with the sports, but that's the way the world is. I wish I could take Prof. Senn's college course.

I didn't get a chance to get into the content of the book due to the headache I got while trying to read the type print. The pages look as if they were stamped with an ink pad. The cover is of the same style as the other books by Cortina that I've read(French, German, Spanish), but the print is far, far inferior.

Perhaps the print seems spartan, but the examples in this book are great and so numerous.

I especially like the grammar section in the back. You can find numerous stock phrases that can be memorized for various conversations you may anticipate:

e.g the section on prepositions "po" and "v" alone has instantly useable examples (pp 302-303)

'po ponedelnikam' 'on Mondays' 'v vremya voini' 'during the war' 'vo vremya' 'on time' 'po moemy mneniyu' 'in my opinion' 'v ety noch' 'on that night' 'v etom sluchae' 'in this case'

These are just a few of them I thought off the top of my head.

The line drawings seem dull but on closer observation they are authentic if minimalist views of Soviet/Russian life which test your knowledge of the culture.

Check out the equestrian statue of Peter the Great (p. 31) Can you recognize the line to Lenin's Tomb? (p. 192) The spire of one of the Stalin-era skyscrapers of Moscow State University? (p. 135) The mezzanine of the Gosudarstvennii Universalnii Magazin (p. 140)

Before I go to a party with Russian friends I memorize various phrases. My knowledge of the language has noticeably improved.

For around $10 this volume is a bargain!

I probably would have given this book four stars, but I felt the need to make up for the previous reviewer's one star. This really IS a good book - The type is a little bit hard to read but if one is familiar with the Cyrillic letters it will not be hard. I'm sure with reading glasses you'd have no trouble. This book basically teaches in several ways. It has a dialog or conversation at the beginning of each lesson, and gives the English translation. Then, it has "Exercises," where an example is given of a type of sentence and then more sentences are given in just Russian. These are done at an easy pace, so it not hard to understand them. Finally, for the last third of the book there is a grammar reference, which is VERY helpful - The lessons have footnotes pointing to these grammar notes. All in all, this book is fairly, well, textual (not many pictures!), but if you're commited to learning more than just "traveler's" Russian, definitely check out this book!