Book Description

This collection of essays has been selected from more than thirty articles written over a period of more than thirty-five years by a scholar-teacher who participated in this transformation and who specializes in the history of historical studies in the United States and Russia. They discuss Slavic studies, their history, progress, and shortcomings, and some of the men who contributed most to this important shift in American higher education. Contents: Introduction: Looking Back and Looking Ahead; HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION; Russian Studies in the United States Before the First World War; The American Institute for Slavic Studies in Prague: A Dream of the 1920s; American Publications on East Central Europe, 1945-1957; Russian and Other Non-Western Areas in Undergraduate Education (with John M. Thompson); Reflections on American Training Programs on Russia; The Future of Area Studies; Soviet-American Academic Exchanges; The Academic Labor Market: Where Do We Go From Here?; American Research and Instruction on the Soviet Union: Some Reflections; SOME INDIVIDUALS; Archibald Cary Coolidge and "Civilization's Diary: " Building the Harvard University Library; Archibald Cary Coolidge: A Founder of Russian Studies in the United States; Geroid T. Robinson: Founder of Columbia University's Russian Institute; Fritz T. Epstein; Stephen D. Kertesz: Diplomat and Scholar; Harvard, Columbia, and the CIA: My Training in Russian Studies; Don Treadgold: A Builder of Slavic Studies