REVIEWS 369 behaviour in I980-8I. He points to the industrialunrest in February I97I and theJuly I98I 'hungermarch'in L6d2aswell asWroclaw'stransformation into one of Solidarity'sstrongestbastions as indicating Stalinism'sfailure to establisha legitimate basisfor socialismin Poland. One can go along with his argument, similar to that of Roman Laba's for the I970s, that Communist party mobilization of the working class proved a dangerous double-edged weapon. But one should not underestimatethe Communist political failures of I956 to I980, despite an astute degree of inventive crisis-management,as being equally, if not more, significant. The political and socioeconomic restructuring of Stalinism achieved in 1956 and Gomulka's and Gierek's attempts to produce new balances between the communist state and a potentially culturallyhostile society meant that nothing had been set in stone by 1950. Department ofPolitics GEORGE SANFORD lUniversity ofBristol Roman, Constantin. Continental Drift. Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures. Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol and Philadelphia, I999. 232 pp. Index. [26.oo. DESPITE its title and the name of its publisher this is not a book on plate tectonics. It is rather an autobiography and a singular account of the experience of a Romanian who came to Britain at the end of the I96os and managed to stayon and make a successfulcareer.In thislatterrespectalone it warrantsattention, but its value is enhanced by the elegance of the writing which is sprinkledgenerouslywith humorousobservationson the ambiguities and vicissitudes of the author's fortune. His story is one that young East Europeans, who are considering a career in the West, might draw comfort from. Constantin Roman was born in I941 in Bucharest and was part of a generation of Romanians who were made to pay by the Communist regime for theirparents'ideological 'deviance'. His fatherworkedas a chemistin the oil industry,a professioninto which the authorhimselfwould follow although initiallyConstantinwished to trainas an architect.His father'srefusaltojoin the Communistpartyput paid to that aspirationsince childrenof 'unhealthy' i.e. middle-class background who showed a 'hostile' attitude towards the regime, were effectively barred from a university education in the arts througha subjectiveinterpretationof the entranceexam results until I963. In the sciences,exam resultswere unequivocaland so Constantingained entry in I960 to the Facultyof Geology in Bucharest.His fatherwas relievedto see him through, as education had become a symbolof survivalin a familywhere all savings had been confiscated and property nationalized. Roman's description of the teaching structure in Bucharest University at that time shows that little has changed in teaching methods in higher education in many Romanian universities today. As this reviewer found from his ownIIexperience in teaching in the country, the relationship between studenit and teacher is one of servant and master. Students tend to learn by 370 SEER, 79, 2, 200 I rote;they are not encouraged to put questionsduringlecturesor seminars tutorials are extremely rare and most of the examinations in the arts -though not the sciences are oral, not written. During the summer months of his universitylife Roman worked as a tour guide for the Romanian National TouristOffice and thus found a loophole in the authorities'officialdiscouragementof contactsby Romanianswithvisitors from the West. It was through this activity that he made friends who subsequentlysenthim dictionariesand foreignliterature.He also receivedoffprintsof scientificpublicationswhich enabled him to keep abreastof the latest developments in his field and provided him with an academic platformfrom which to embark on his professional career once he managed to get to the West. Persistenceand ingenuity allowed him to overcome Romanian bureaucracy and to obtain a passportat the age of twenty-sevenin order to take up an invitation from Newcastle University to attend a palaeomagnetic conference. Roman succeeded through various stratagems in extending his visit. Adaptation to life in Western Europe posed a challenge in itself to East Europeans, but coping with the singularways of the British added an extra dimension. It is in thispartof the book that Roman is at his best. What struck him most on the professional level was the willingness of scientists, first at Newcastle, and later at Cambridge where he completed a Ph.D. to involve him in their research and to suggest funding opportunities.This was in stark contrast to his Romanian experience. Eventually, with the help of Lord Goodman, the eminent lawyer, Roman...