As usual, Mr. Szporluk's lucid and informative style makes understanding Eastern Europe a pleasure, in an area where unbiased analysis is still not the norm. Too many of us are still forced to rely on unreliable or falsified Soviet or even Tsarist era materials. Congratulations!

Yet again, Szporluk's has delivered a lucid analysis of another aspect of Eastern Europe's history. He has made accesable to the average reader what could be an obscure subject. Russian identity, a topic which has both fascinated and frustrated scholars in recent decades, is made easy as Szporluk's describes its developement or lack thereof. This is an achievement which should be enjoyed by all.

In the preface to this book, Szporluk says he wants to discover what Karl Marx thought about the economist Friedrich List. He then ignores this endeavor and instead describes the ideas of first Marx and then List within their historical context - information analyzed in uncountable works prior to this author. Sporluk is sweeping - quoting Bertrand Russell, mentioning Rosa Luxembourg and even Martin Luther. The author attempts to say something intelligent about unfolding nationalism and communism from Great Britain to Russia in the time span of a century and ends up with muddled thinking. He even plucks in science and technology at the very end - a topic never mentioned prior to the last paragraph. Moreover, the writing makes classic mistakes of a freshman undergraduate: question marks rather than statements pepper each chapter and his concluding remarks in each section are weak. For a serious treatment of communism and nationalism don't consult the mediocre - go right to the best: Karl Deutsch, George Lichtheim or Ernest Gellner.

Once again, Mr. Szporluk presents us with his brilliant analysis so threatening to some of the former Soviet sympathizers - on both sides of the Atlantic. His ideas and his reputation remain unassailable.

Roman Szporluk's overview of the fusion of communist and nationalistic thought should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in how communism rose froman intellectual theory to be a mover of men and nations. This book should be on the shelf of any good student of history.

What is this book about? The writing is so poor, it's difficult to say. This author needs to go back and learn basic grammar and sentence structure before trying his hand at some very compex issues.

Perhaps the reason a scant handful of reviewers here do not appreciate this book, saying that it says nothing new, is because Mr. Szporluk himself is the founder of the way modern historians and political scientists view and analyze Eastern Europe. If this book reads familiar, it is because Mr. Szporluk's theories are the foundation upon which other work has been based. A brilliant readand a keystone in Eastern European history.

This is an uncommonly fine set of essays. Their subjects are some of the more important contemporary and historical connections and relationships in Eastern Europe, and the essays leave the reader's understanding of that part of the world much enriched. Among the connections and relationships Szporluk explores are: Ukraine-Russia; Poland-Ukraine; Russia-Poland; and Czarist Russia-the USSR. The essays, wirtten over the last 25 or 30 years, are marked by: an encyclopedic familiarity with all of the types of literature that have bearing on his subjects; a healthy respect for facts--particularly some that were long obscure to most observers--and where they lead (in the sense of not treating facts as mere fodder to be crammed into some favorite theoretical framework); and, a highly thoughtful and perceptive analysis that interrelates facts with facts, and facts with theory. If you're interested in Eastern Europe, a book not to be missed.