Scott Shane does a good job of describing the collapse of the Soviet Union, mostly through the eyes of a few people he knew well. However, the book is rudimentary for anyone who has studied Russia, and if anyone is to choose one book it should be "Lenin's Tomb" by David Remnick.

He does add to the discussion about the fall by focusing on information, but it also seems a bit predictable that a journalist would emphasize the role journalism and information played in the collapse.

DISMANTLING UTOPIA

Scott Shane, an American educated journalist who also studied at Leningrad State University, was the Baltimore Sun's Russian speaking Moscow correspondent from 1988-1991. His book is the story of the Communist rulers of the USSR and their failure to comprehend the implications of the global telecommunications revolution. In trying to match the USA in military might, a feat presumed by many to be a foregone conclusion in 1980, the inhabitants of the politburo instead locked their country out of the global telecom revolution hastening the implosion of their already rotten and inefficient communist system. Shane weaves a fascinating tale of this unexpected transition, an event from which Hard Leftists of the world have yet to recover.

At the outset Shane tells of the banning of books, of the speech codes and of the virtual thought control so pervasive in the communist system. One can't help but compare it to the speech codes so popular today with the tenured radicals who run American universities. Moving right along Shane morphs into the early 80's when Gorbachev asked Andropov how much the USSR spent on defense? Andropov brushed him off. It was then that Gorbachev realized that nobody knew! This was a time when personal computers were 8 bit with 64K of RAM. Contrast this with the >10 gig PC hard drives of today, selling at a fraction of the cost of the 1980 PC. Contrast the decline of the Soviet economy with the rise of Americas' and you have the essence of this book.

As the Communist leviathan unraveled its shortage of hard currency became an untenable burden. They made more of everything than anyone else, but nobody wanted any of it. They couldn't feed their people and compete with American military might. Russia's decline can be paralleled with the fall in labor union membership in America where the only ascendant unions today are made up of government employees (hardly the laborers Marx had in mind when he encouraged workers to throw off their chains). The reason is that the global economy is moving away from industries that make things and move things and toward the development of intellectual capital and software.

As the plummeting of the Communist economy accelerated the phrase "Kogda ty znal - when did you know?" became a common one. "When did you know the accomplishments of the communist party were based on lies?" Information from smaller and smaller electronic units proved impossible for the Reds to block. The corrupt communist elite was on the ropes. Scott Shane describes this building pressure in Soviet society. Just as water pressure builds behind a dam after 40 days and 40 nights of rain, pressure built in Soviet society and when the dam finally broke, the apparatchiks were swept away and the party unity and organization did a face plant into the sidewalk of history.

An interesting vignette in the book occurs when the main apartment unit, in one of those dreary grey Soviet housing projects, plays a tape cassette of an American movie. Everyone is watching as all TV's in the building are hooked up to the same channel. The people watching are aghast, and not about the show. When they see a character in the sitcom open the refrigerator door and they see what is inside the refrigerator, they can't believe the varieties of food and furthermore are astounded that American consumers have cold beer. It's like the scene in the movie portrayal of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath where the Okies are going west in their cars. The Leftist screen writers in Hollywood were intent on making a statement about poverty in America, but when the movie was seen overseas the viewers were instead incredulous that America's poor had their own cars.

In Russia the fact that everyone in America seemed to have a car and excess living space was over the top. When Gorbachev's attempts at Socialism lite failed the end was in sight. Shane cataloges how the elite's could no longer get away with the Big lie as they had in the past. They were unequipped to deal with advances in telecommunications such as simple fax machines. Instead of keeping people in the dark while they were divided and conquered, the elites were exposed like the wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled back. They were just like he, bumbling little old men with lots of bluster. They lost their will to bring in the Tanks, to continue their rule by terror. Thus ended a century of intellectual support for the socialist ideal that promised so much, but delivered so little. Shane tells this tale with sympathy and understanding. He brings to life the relief of the people from the 70-year yoke of the Communist party. As he makes clear, if governments could control prices and quantities of goods and services then Communism would have worked. But, that will never happen and under strict regimes such as those found in Soviet Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Communist China, etc. the result has too often led to Genocide and Gulags.

A well told tale of a fascinating event in history which caught 99.999% of intellectuals completely by surprise.

I have lived in Russia for the past three years and am a personal friend of Andre Mironoff. I have taught Human Rights in Russian Universities, and have had Andre as a guest lecturer in my classe.

I recommend with out reservation reading this book to have a better understanding of life that still exists in modern Russia. There are more paradoxes than solutions to the complexities existing in Russia's difficult transition. I found Scott Shane's book to give a better understanding to the paradoxes existing today than did David Remnicks "Lenin's Toumb". Shane skillfully and accurately identified the power of informtion in the Soviet Union's collapse, the paradox being, the lack of coodinated information desemination in Russia today being a major barrier to reform.

Andrei is still pursuing Human Rights in Russia, and many others like him are vital to keeping the foundation of reform alive----that is a civil society with an appreciation of the importance of recognizing Human Rights of its citizens.

This book also has a great potential not in classes relating to Russia's current transition, but to Human Rights classe in general...The theoretical aspects are grounded into a practical reality for a reader of Shane's book.

To any reader,,,the importance of media in our modern society is underscored by this account. This book is an excellent gift to share with friends, It also allows readers to understand the importance of supporting reform in Russia

This book is quite useful and I have found data in it I was looking for for a long time, especially in the deck plans. Still, it has some quite big faults. Biggest of all is the dates, the first Enterprise served 2221-2285, not some time around the turn of the century and the NCC-1701-A did not possess a Transwarp Drive like described in the book. But overall this book is very useful for its vast amount of details not seen anywhere else

Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise is a good book with lots of information. However, some of the information is speculation. Cool picts, it is a really popular book and I like it.

This book is the most in-depth resource available on the NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A as they appeared in the first four Star Trek films. Its deck plans appear to match the actual sets very closely, and it refers to details of the starship model and mattes of sets such as the recreation deck in such a way that you can tell that Mr. Johnson has definitely done his homework. I recommend it to any fan of the film era or later. Many of the sets shown here would later be redressed to serve as rooms of the NCC-1701-D, the 1701-A in the fifth and sixth movies, and the USS Voyager from Star Trek: Voyager.

For years Trekkers have debated over which books are Trek "canon," and which aren't. Many fans do not consider this book to be canon. If you want to be anal about it, no Star Trek book is canon, not even the Sternbach/Okuda works, or the writer's guides or bibles themselves. Since the episodes and films contradict each other from time to time, one could argue that no single episode or film is canon when held up against the Star Trek universe as a whole.

Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda have argued that each fan must decide what he or she believes to be canon. To me, this book is. Buy it.

A nice collection of artists, with some great examples of what they can do. But....
Paper stock is poor and some prints are a bit blurry.

This is a great artbook, featuring many famous furry artists. I love the art, and look at it regularly. If you're a fan of Michele Light, I recommend it.

This book started my physical collection of furry publishings, and still remains the best singal pice I have. Not only is it perfectaly published, but contains excellent examples of anthropomorphic artwork. Its my personal bible.