Book reviews

Roger Pethybridge, One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward: Soviet Society and Politics under the New Economic Policy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, xi, 453pp., $80.00.

Masami Arasi, Turkish Nationalism in the Young Turk Era. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1992, 168pp., index, $45.

Alastair Lamb, Kashmir: a Disputed Legacy 1846–1990. Hertingfordbury, Herts: Roxford Books, 1991, xiv + 368pp., £25 hardback, £12.50 paperback.

Peter Hopkirk (ed.), Reginald Teague‐Jones, The Spy who Disappeared. Diary of a Secret Mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918. London: Gollancz, 1991, £5.99 paperback.

Suroosh Irfani and Fazal‐ur‐Rahman (eds), Afghanistan: Looking to the Future. Islamabad, Pakistan: Institute of Strategic Studies, F‐5/2, 158 pp., $6 paperback.     

Book reviews

Waqf in Central Asia: Four hundred years in the history of a Muslim Shrine, 1480–1889 R. D. McChesney Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, 319 pp

Des Ethnies aux Nations en Asie Centrale Olivier Roy (editor) Aix‐en‐Provence, France: Editions Edisud, 1992, 162 pp, paperback

En Asie Centrale Sovietique. Ethnies, Nations, Etats Olivier Roy (editor) Paris, France: Cahiers du Monde, Russe et Sovietique, and Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1991, 166 pp, paperback

Asie Centrale. Aux confins des Empires, reveil et tumulte Catherine Poujol (editor) Paris: Editions Autrement, Serie Monde 1992, 253 pp, FF98, paperback

Le Cinema d'Asie Centrale Sovietique Jean Radvanyi (editor) Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 1991, 19 pp, FF270

Red Odyssey, a Journey through the Soviet Republics Marat Akchurin London: Secker & Warburg, 1992, 431 pp, £17.99 hardback

Medieval Persia, 1040–1797 David Morgan London: Longman, 1992, 197 pp, index, bibliographical survey, £10.90, paperback

Nomad. A Year in the Life of a Qashqa'i Tribesman in Iran Lois Beck, University of California Press and I. B. Tauris, London, 1991, 489 pp, illustrated, bibliography, index, £16.95, paperback

Untying the Afghan Knot. Negotiating Soviet Withdrawal Riaz M. Khan Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1992, 402 pp, notes, index, £45.00.

Afghanistan Schuyler Jones (compiler) Oxford, Clio Press: 1992, 281 pp, £43.95

Agha, Shaikh and State. The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan Martin Van Bruinessen London: Zed Books, 1992, 373 pp, bibliography, index £19.95/US$35, paperback     

The conundrum of charitability: reassessing tax exemption for hospitals

Tax exemption is an ancient, honorable and expensive tradition. Tax exemption for hospitals is all of these three, but it also places in sharp focus a fundamental problem with tax exemption in general. Organizations can retain their tax exemption while changing circumstances or expectations undermine the rationale that led to the exemption in the first place. Hospitals are perhaps the best example of this problem. The dramatic changes in the health care environment have eliminated most of the characteristics of a hospital that originally persuaded the citizenry to grant it an exemption. Hospitals have entered into competition with tax-paying businesses, and have increasingly behaved like competitive actors. Such conduct may well be beneficial, but it does not follow that tax exemption is appropriate. Rather than an undifferentiated subsidy, a shift to focused goals will provide charitable hospitals with the opportunity and incentive to "do the right thing."     

Evaluation of a Health Care Provider Training Program to Identify and Help Partner Violence Victims

This study tested four hypotheses about the impact of a 3-h domestic violence training program with 752 health care providers on attitudes and values related to screening and helping partner violence victims. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 were that training would be related to: 1) increased self-efficacy to identify and help partner violence victims, 2) increased endorsement of the role of health care providers and settings for helping partner violence victims, and 3) increased comfort making appropriate community referrals to help partner violence victims. Hypothesis 4 was that training effects would be moderated by prior training and by prior experience with helping a victim. Following training, health care providers reported increased self-efficacy, increased comfort making appropriate community referrals, and increased valuation of health care providers and the health care system as having an important role in stopping domestic violence. Hypothesis 4 was also supported. Prior training and/or experience with an abuse victim predicted smaller changes in the dependent variables. These gains held at a 6-month follow-up. Implications for training curriculum design are discussed, in addition to institutional policy implications for determining the benefits versus costs of universal training, including staff who demonstrate prior training or experience with battered victims. Study limitations and future research directions, including the need to measure performance and policy compliance will also be outlined.     

Book reviews

Nations and Politics in the Soviet Successor States Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras, (editors) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 577 pp, £35

Central Asia in World History S. A. M. Adshead London: Macmillan Press, 1993, 291 pp, £40

Turkey and the West: Changing Political and Cultural Identities Metin Heper, Ayse Oncu and Heinz Kramer (editors) London: I. B. Tauris, New York: St Martins Press, 1993, 289 pp, £39.50

Endurance and Endeavour. Russian History 1812–1992 J. N. Westwood Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, 624 pp, £40

State, Religion and Society in Central Asia. A Post‐Soviet Critique Vitaly Naumkin and Sergei A. Panarin (editors) Reading: Ithaca Press, 1993, 289 pp, £35

Communism Ferdinand Mount (editor) London: Harvill, 1992, 321 pp, £9.99     

Book reviews

The Partition of the Steppe. The Struggle of the Russians, Manchus, and the Zunghar Mongols for Empire in Central Asia, 1619–1758: A Study in Power Politics Fred W. Bergholz New York: Peter Lang, 1993, vi + 522 pp, hardcover

On Secret Service East of Constantinople: the plot to bring down the British Empire Peter Hopkirk London: John Murray, 1994. xvi, 431 pp. illus., £19.99

The Soviet Union and its Southern Neighbours: Iran and Afghanistan Mikhail Volodarsky London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1994, 196 pp, $37.50

Moscow's Lost Empire Michael Rywkin Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1994, 214 pp, biblio, index

Russia and the Third World in the Post‐Soviet Era Mohiaddin Mesbahi (editor) Gainesville, USA: University Press of Florida, 1994, 414 pp, $49.95 cloth, $19.95/£18 paper

Central Asia and the World: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan Michael Mandelbaum (editor) New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1994, viii, 251 pp, $16.95 paperback