Book Reviews : Political Life. By ROBERT E. LANE. (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959. Pp. iii, 374. $7.50.)

• Author: Alex Gottfried
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300235
• Date: 01 June 1960
• Published date: 01 June 1960
• Subject Matter: Articles

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approach toward various areas of the world is treated comprehensively, and there
are sections on Soviet &dquo;possessions&dquo; (e.g., Ukraine), and &dquo;protectorates&dquo; (e.g.,
Poland).
Communism, for Kulski, is a pseudo-religious movement guided by hard,
practical politicians. Its form and content in underdeveloped countries is charac-
terized by deference and friendliness toward former colonial peoples, exploita-
tion of their resentments, encouragement of their neutralism, discrediting of the
West, and portrayal of the U.S.S.R. as a perfect example of how a backward,
ex-colonial nation can industrialize and modernize rapidly.
Peaceful Co-Existence is not simply a monograph on Soviet foreign policy,
but rather a panorama of that country’s relations toward the rest of the world
since 1917. The subjects covered are numerous and quite varied, occasionally
tangential (for example, linguistic Russification of the Uzbeks, and Orientalia in
Soviet universities), imbedded in considerable historical detail, and buttressed by
overly long, tiresome quotations. Yet, given the author’s chosen framework, he
does deal with the subject in toto, the varied topics do fit together (if one’s ap-
proach to foreign affairs is broad enough), and the quotations, though excessive,
are pertinent.
In a painstaking, plodding manner each principle, each concept of Soviet
foreign policy from Lenin’s pronouncements to Khrushchev’s actions is joined,
link by link, to form, in the author’s view, an unbroken, integral chain. Kulski’s
diffusive approach to his subject constitutes a distended anthology which includes
within its purview any and all subjects related to foreign policy -
no matter
how remote.
RICHARD C. GRIPP
San Diego State College
Political Life. By ROBERT E. LANE. (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959. Pp.
iii, 374. $7.50.)
This is a serious and comprehensive piece of political behavior scholarship.
It will be surprising if it does not become one of those seminal works...