AMERICA AND RUSSIA: A Century and a Half of Dramatic Encounters

Of the two nations, Russia and America, de Tocqueville in 1835 remarked, ""each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of the globe"". To size up the validity of that comment, American Heritage magazine some years ago commissioned a series of articles (they appeared under the title America and Russia) in which were analyzed highlights of the contacts between the two. These articles form the bulk of the book, and a short section at the end is devoted to six extracts from Soviet encyclopedias and journals reflecting Russia's view of us and our leaders. Authors of the various articles are Robert Crowley, E. M. Halliday and Robert L. Reynolds of American Heritage, William Harlan Hale and Marshall E. Davidson of Horizon, Moshe Decter, formerly of The New Leader, Robert S. Rifkind, Allan Temko, and Bertram D. Wolfe. The men who prepared the Soviet material are Abraham Brumberg of the U.S.I.A.'s Problems of Communism, and five professors and authors: Marcus Cunliffe, John A. Garraty, Richard B. Morris, Allan Nevins, and Henry Nash Smith. The essays are twelve in number: half of them concern Russo- American relations from the time of Alexander I to the Russian Revolution, and half cover highlights of the modern period, including one of the early history of the Communist Party in America.