Czechoslovak democratization from January 1968 on and its rude interruption in August marked a watershed in the evolution of world communism and perhaps a turning point in international affairs and world history. The Prague spring represented an effort at reform going far beyond any previous liberalization of a communist state. Its brutal crushing by force symbolized the determination of the Soviet regime to prevent any thorough-going revision of communism, and thereby dealt a serious, perhaps fatal, blow to international communist unity and reduced hopes for an international detente. Such an epochal event cries out for serious scholarly analysis. As have other crises in Eastern European communism, the Prague case has brought forth a large number of books dealing with a country previously neglected by scholars and publishers; together these represent a high-water mark in quantity but a low point in literary or scholarly achievement* Potboilers and quickies, personal reportage or interpretations by participants, documentary collections, examinations of the international aspects of the crisis -these books, with several exceptions, provide a sad commentary on Western scholarship concerning Eastern Europe and on our knowledge of one of the most fascinating countries of that area. The events of 1968 in Czechoslovakia still await authors who will analyse the real nature of the Dubcek reform movement, its deeper roots in the Czechoslovak past, the reasons for the Soviet intervention, and the causes of Czech and Slovak resistance and compromise, and who will place this in the perspective of the history of this small country and its communist movement.