Reviews

Karen Dawisha (ed.), The International Dimension of Post‐Communist Transitions in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xvii + 462 pp., $29.95 p/b.

Peter Truscott, Russia First: Breaking with the West. London: I. B. Tauris, 1997, x + 278 pp., £24.50.

Karen Henderson & Neil Robinson, Post‐Communist Politics: An Introduction. London: Prentice Hall, 1997, xxiii + 424 pp., £14.95.

Klaus Segbers & Stephen De Spiegeleire (eds), Post‐Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgessellschaft, 4 vols, 1995, 145 Dm. Vol I: Against the Background of the Former Soviet Union, 297 pp., Vol II: Emerging Geopolitical and Territorial Units, 511 pp., Vol. III: Emerging Societal Actors— Economic, Social and Political Interests, 735 pp., Vol. IV: The Emancipation of Society as a Reaction to Systematic Change, 179 pp.

Bertram Silverman & Murray Yanowitch, New Rich, New Poor, New Russia: Winners and Losers on the Russian Road to Capitalism. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xv + 159 pp., $21.95.

Stephen Crowley, Hot Coal, Cold Steel: Russian and Ukrainian Workers from the End of the Soviet Union to the Post‐Communist Transformations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997, x + 273 pp., £29.95.

Andreas Pickel & Helmut Wiesenthal, The Grand Experiment: Debating Shock Therapy, Transition Theory, and the East German Experience. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997, x + 262 pp.

Gregory Gleason, The Central Asian States—Discovering Independence. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press, 1997, xix + 220 pp., £51.95 h/b, £15.95 p/b.

Karen Dawisha & Bruce Parrott (eds), Conflict, Cleavage and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xviii + 423 pp., £55.00 h/b, £19.95 p/b.

Mark Slobin (ed.), Retuning Culture. Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Duke University Press, 1996, vi + 310 pp., £16.95.

Karen Dawisha & Bruce Parrott (eds), Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South‐East Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xx + 472 pp., £19.95.

Marju Lauristin et al. (eds), Return to the Western World. Cultural and Political Perspectives on the Estonian Post‐Communist Transition. Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1997, xvi + 388 pp.

Andrejs Plakans, Historical Dictionary of Latvia. London: Scarecrow Press, 1997, xxvi + 193 pp., £32.80.

Carl Linden & Jan S. Prybyla, Russia and China on the Eve of a New Millennium. New Brunswick: Transaction, 1997, x + 341 pp., $44.95.

Christopher Pierson, Socialism after Communism. The New Market Socialism. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 1995, x + 249 pp.

Nancy Ries, Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997, xii + 220 pp., £31.50 h/b, £13.50 p/b.

Bruce A. Elleman, Diplomacy and Deception: The Secret History of Sino‐Soviet Diplomatic Relations, 1917–1927. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997, xviii + 322 pp., $72.95.

Sarah Davies, Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia: Terror, Propaganda, and Dissent, 1934–1941. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xix + 236 pp., £15.95.

Michael Parrish. The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953. Westport: Praeger, 1996, xxi + 424 pp., £69.50.

Eric Naiman, Sex in Public. The Incarnation of Early Soviet Ideology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, x + 307 pp., £27.50.

Petrus Buwalda, They Did Not Dwell Alone. Jewish Emigration from the Soviet Union, 1967–1990. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, xviii + 297 pp., £31.50.

Marco Carynnyk, Lubomyr Y. Luciuk & Bohdan S. Kordan (eds), The Foreign Office and the Famine: British Documents on Ukraine and the Great Famine of 1932–1933. Kingston, ON: Limestone, 1988, lxiv + 493 pp.     

THE NEGLECT OF CHILDREN AND CULTURE: RESPONDING TO CHILD MALTREATMENT WITH CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND A REVIEW OF CHILD ABUSE AND CULTURE: WORKING WITH DIVERSE FAMILIES*

This article examines cultural competence in the context of child protective proceedings, underscoring the dangers posed by bias toward particular cultural views, standards, and norms. I look at the racial imbalance within the realm of child maltreatment proceedings and explore the challenge of how children can receive appropriate services, counseling, and representation, given their varying cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Lastly, I review Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families, by Lisa Aronson Fontes.     

A ‘missed opportunity’ for peace? Harold Wilson,British diplomacy,and the sun flower initiative to end the Vietnam war,February 1967

This article examines Harold Wilson's attempts to promote a peaceful solution to the Vietnam war during his first term in office as Britain's Prime Minister, with particular reference to his discussions with the Soviet Premier, Alexei Kosygin, in London in February 1967. Wilson's diplomatic efforts were influenced by his intention to improve Anglo-Soviet relations, and by his belief that the United Kingdom could help develop East-West contacts and facilitate the process of detente. In conclusion, this article argues that the failure of the Sunflower initiative in February 1967 was due not to the intervention of American ‘hawks’, as Wilson supposed, but to the convoluted clash of interests of the powers involved either directly or indirectly in the Vietnam war – the USA, USSR, China, and North Vietnam – which handicapped third-parry peace initiatives.