Background to Crisis: Policy and Politics in Gierek’s Poland

With a keen sense of timing the editors and authors of this book, a group of talented American and Canadian scholars, decided a few years ago to use their firsthand knowledge of contemporary Poland to put out a comprehensive survey of a communist state in full crisis. They completed their work just as the crisis burst the bonds of the system and toppled Mr. Gierek. An excellent background book although rather thin on the vital question of Polish-Soviet relations.