if you like any of rucker's books and want to know more about him this is an excellent choice. i havn't read the poem section tho. sometimes forgot it was nonfiction (just love that rudy). on the zig-zag scale, it scores an unprecedented slo-burning kut-kornered 9!

This guidebook orients you to the essentials of the four cities but it's a good buy even if you plan on visiting a little more than just the capitals since it includes tips on excursions outside the cities as well. Monuments, churches etc are briefly but well described and gives you a flavor of the history and the culture of the country you're visiting. The guide seem to be written more to satisfy the culturally interested tourist than the bargain-seeking backpacker. This travelbook enhanced my trip and answered almost all my questions. A little minus is that the maps in the book only features a few of the mentioned sites and therefore some of them can be a bit tricky to find even if there often are suggested walks.

Here is a good, relaxing summer read. Mr. Dvoracek captures the tention of the cold war yet keeps this book fast paced and true to life. Take this one on vaction!

This book, Blockade Diary, is one of those rare pieces of work (you all know the ones I am talking about) that make you really think about your life. I have always taken for granted the freedoms I have that the people in this book do not have. It is a great book for self-discovery and I think it is wonderful for summer reading.

Currently there is no better introduction to the cultural,historical events that took place in the Charpatian-Basin, than Mr. Simon's work. Although the same topic were discussed in other publications, this reissued version offers a bonus alternative.

I bought this book at the Pegasus Bridge Museum while on a tour of the D-Day battlesites. I was fascinated by our tour guide, a retired British Brigadier, and his stories of Major John Howard. This book adds to most American's views of the D-Day invasion. I recommend this book even though Mr. Edwards is a bit full of himself, as are most "been there done that" combat veterans.

While a few important idiomatic expressions are not given, this book is very useful for Albanians learning English and for native speakers of English who want to express themselves in idiomatic Albanian. It is recommended for all those learning either English or Albanian above the beginners' level.

Excellent source of resource material on famous Jewish personalities and institutions in Russia - the Soviet Union, especially St. Petersburg at the turn of the century. Few such books exist in English. Expecting more such books.

Lonely planet has almost become the Bible for budget travellers. This book contiunes the trend - most people in the youth hostels I stayed at in Sacandinavia had a copy ! As ususal, the book provides good information on places to stay and eat as well as suggested sights. If anything, the book is a little light on detail in some areas. This is basically because it trys to cover such a large area. Therefore, travellers are advised to use this book as a guide only. It does not compensate for making your own enquies and going 'off the beaten track'. As usual, the book is well organised and reference making access to information quick and efficient. This is certainly thes best guide for Scandinavia I found and a must for independent travellers. Enjoy your trip ...

The Russian Civil War was a crucial turning point in the history of the Soviet Union, as it put a premium on brutality, rigidity, scarcity and intolerance to an appalling degree. Peter Holquist's monograph looks at the Don region. This was the home of the famed (and infamous) Cossacks, for centuries key military supporters of the Tsarist regime. Although they owned the best land, they were a minority of the Don population (about 40%), the rest were "native" peasants and recent immigrants. Holquist's book seeks to examine the region as a whole from the start of the first world war in 1914, through the agony of impending defeat, to the February Revolution and the October Revolution. This was followed by a civil war between the Soviet government and the Cossack supported Whites, followed in 1920 and 1921 by Soviet grain requisition policies that led to mass rebellion and mass famine.

There are a number of themes in this book, and the first is the Procustean one. In Greek mythology Procustes owned an inn and invited travelers to sleep on a bed. Those who were shorter than the bed would be stretched until they fit, while those who were taller than it, would have their limbs chopped off until they fit. Such was the policy uses by not merely the whites and reds, but by almost all sides in the Russian civil war. The White/Cossacks viewed themselves as pure Cossacks fighting not only the Reds but local non-Soviet peasants who were assumed to be red. This was in fact a vast oversimplification. Many Cossacks showed little interest in fighting or supporting the Cossacks, many of them supported, if not the Bolsheviks, the Soviet form of government. In turn, many of the White supporters in the Don were non-Cossacks, many of them refugees from the rest of Russia. In turn, the Reds, grown up on legends of Cossack brutality, had their own abstractions. The Cossacks, legally an estate, were in early 1920 viewed as a counterrevolutionary sort that had to be exterminated. This notwithstanding local reports that showed that many Cossacks had supported the Reds. This lead to the brutal episode of indiscriminate "De-Cossackization" that led to perhaps 12,000 executions in early 1920 before rebellions forced the Reds to moderate their policies. Soon Cossacks joined the rest of the Soviets in being fit into the Bolshevik schematic of the peasantry of bad "exploitive" Kulaks, and good middle and poor peasants whom the Party was supposed to appease. But then the Soviets, desperately seeking grain, sought to extort incredible amounts from the Don region. Although the Don was once one of the great grain producing regions of the country, civil war had devastated the region. It was simply not possible to meet the grain quotas, as local Bolsheviks told their national superiors, and the attempt to do so led to massive famine and rebellion. The Soviets blamed these rebellions on "Kulaks" and "bandits," but as Holquist shows the rebellions in the Don were led by former Red Army officers and Soviet supporters, who in turn championed their support of Soviets and red revolution.

The second theme in Holquist's book is that of continuity. Before the October Revolution the provisional government had agreed to use force and persuasion to obtain grain and the Whites would use the same policies. All sides used increased surveillance to achieve its ends; all of them used propaganda and all of them used terror. Whether Whites or Reds, Peasants or Anarchists, all were willing to burn down villages, carry out executions, summon people's courts, and enforce mandatory labor conscription. In a way, the key turning point was not 1917, but 1914. Whereas in 1913 Russian officials scoured 380,000 pieces of mail, by 1915 they were doing a hundred times that in one military district alone. There is constant comparison with other European countries about the formation of state surveillance, government control of food supply and the impact of military violence. The specifically Russian path, according to Holquist, was as follows. Russian autocracy had prevented the growth of civil society outside of the middle class and urban areas. Middle class liberals tried to work with the institutions of the state before 1917 to remedy this gap and to help the war effort. After 1917 all sides sought to use the state to bridge the gap between the elite and the vast peasant masses, not simply to give them orders but also to turn them into active citizens who would take the initiative to carry out the orders the elite had already given them. Not surprisingly, these measures were not successful in producing liberty, prosperity or even large number of enthusiastic supporters. Nevertheless, as Holquist points, the experience of the pre-war, and the war, made the Manicheanism of the time "plausible and even appealing." There are some objections one can make to Holquist. He argues that what distinguished the Bolsheviks from their enemies was not their practices, but their willingness to use these practices in peacetime. But since the book ends in 1921 this difference is not as well developed as it could be. Conversely to this criticism of Bolshevik utopianism, there is less on alternatives to food requisitioning policy. At one point Holquist suggests that the Russian political spectrum, in contrast to the rest of Europe not only sought state control, but also practiced the unique and destructive policy of seeking to get around market mechanisms of food supply entirely. But this point is only briefly discussed and not really developed. Notwithstanding, that, Holquist's work is a disturbing and rather depressing book about a period where hope was not an option.