A history of the gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia /

Crowe (Elon College), author of The Baltic States and the Great Power (CH, Sep'93), is a diplomatic historian who has become interested in Gypsies. There is no question of the significance of the topic, given the acute persecution of Gypsies in the postcommunist states. Crowe does a good job of bringing together a wide variety of sources, many quite obscure. The book is organized by country, with only ten pages of introduction and conclusion to integrate these separate national histories. There is little attempt to compare or generalize, and a number of minor errors of fact and interpretation have been perpetuated from the mostly secondary sources on which Crowe relies. In general, the work very much reflects an outsider's perspective, largely ignorant of Gypsy society and culture. It is a definite improvement over the inconsistent anthology (The Gypsies of Eastern Europe, 1991) edited by Crowe and John Kolsti, but less authoritative than either Angus Fraser's The Gypsies (CH, May'93) or, for the current situation, than the country-by-country surveys published in recent years by Human Rights Watch. W. G. Lockwood; University of Michigan

Crowe, a historian and scholar who has previously edited a collection of conference papers on this topic, places the Gypsy experience within the context of the development of six nations-Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Yugoslavia. Crowe has extensively documented his study, relying upon standard histories, documents, and recently identified sources from the region in many languages. He seeks to present both the contribution of the Gypsies to each nation examined as well as the prejudice they experienced there. He makes the point that until Gypsies are treated more fairly, mistrust between them and other citizens will continue to block their integration into national life. This useful work has a place in regional and larger collections.-Rena Fowler, Humboldt State Univ., Arcata, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.