Book Review: U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe: A History of Russia
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | Robert H. McNeal |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900133 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
112
INTMNATIONAL
JouRNAL
empirical,
it
ranges
widely
and
presents fascinating insight
and
specu-
lations
about
the
future
of
France.
While
convinced
that
the
solution
to
the
ills of
France's
political
system
lies
in
renovating
her
political
parties
by
bringing
in
the
new 6lite,
he
fears
that
a
restoration
of
the
parliamentary
"game"
would give
rise
to
an
undemocratic,
totalitarian
regime.
This
is
a highly
successful,
informative and stimulating
book.
It
is
wide-ranging
and
ambitious,
but
would
have
been
strengthened
by
a
study
of
the
army,
that
bomb
that
shattered
the
Fourth
Republic
and
threatened
the
Fifth.
Also
the
activist
groups,
few
as
their
supporters
are,
are
worthy
of
discussion.
This
is
the
best single
volume
available
in
English explaining contemporary
France.
Queen's
University
HUGH
THoRBUiN
U.S.S.R.
and
Eastern
Europe
A
HISrTOY
OF
RussiA. By
Nicholas
V.
Riasanovsky.
1963.
(New
York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
xviii,
711pp.
$13.50)
Principally
as
a
result
of
the
growing
enrolment
in
university
courses
in
Russian
history,
the
number
of
texts or
surveys
treating
over
a
thousand
years
of
this subject
in
one volume
has
been
steadily
increasing.
On
the
whole
these
are
sound,
acceptable
works, but
it
does
not
seem
that
any
of
the
late
entrants
in
the
field
stand
markedly
above
the
better
ones of
earlier
date-until
the
publication
of
Professor
Riasa-
novsky's
book.
While
not
distinguished
by
any
notable
original
pattern
of
organization
or
by
unconventional
interpretations,
this
survey
is
at
least
a
little
ahead
of
its
numerous
rivals
in
most
important
respects.
Without
attempting
to
estimate
which
historian
of
Russian
has
read
most
deeply-a
super-sensitive
and
probably
impossible
kind
of
critical
comparison-this
reviewer
feels
that
Riasanovsky
has
succeeded
in
con-
veying
to
the
reader greater
erudition
than
one
finds
in
any other
single-
volume
book
in
this
field.
The
most
distinctive
feature
of his
success
in
this
is
his
ability
to summarize
variant
historiographical
opinions
of
most
important
issues,
eschewing
the
"straight
dope"
textbook
approach.
In
so
doing
Riasanovsky
has
made
his
work
not
only
an
introduction
in
the
sense
that
the
non-specialist
can
cope
with
it,
but
also
in
the
sense
that
it
continually
opens
avenues
for
further,
deeper
study
of
the
chief
issues,
especially
by
its
rich bibliographical
references.
And
to
this
it
must
be
added
that
the
richness
of
learning
does
not
drown
the
reader
in
a
deluge
of
names
and
dates,
but
rather
provides
a
modulated
flow
of
data
and
interpretation,
expressed
in
attractive
unassuming
prose.
The
auxiliary features
of
the
work
are
also
excellent.
Its
numerous
maps
(black-and-white
excepting
the
end-papers)
are
the
best
available
to
the
reader
of
English
and
tightly
related
to
the narrative.
The
illustrations
(including
some
interesting
photographs
of
recent
date)
are
refreshingly
original
and
pertinent.
The bibliography,
while
not
topically
organized,
supports
the
historiographical
objective
of
the
book
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