Leopold Labedz, as writer and editor, has never hesitated to enter the lists against those who, with some repute as experts on the Soviet Union and communism, have misread history or slighted the truth. Most of these essays, originally appearing in Encounter or Survey, are directed at particular individuals, either in praise or in blame. Examples of the former are Leszek Kolakowski, Czeslaw Milosz, Raymond Aron; of the latter, Isaac Deutscher, E.H. Carr and George Kennan. No reader will be bored.