All-Too-Hasty Wisdom

Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin, by George F. Kennan. Atlantic-Little, Brown, $5.75.

George F. Kennan is certainly the most readable among the New Frontier politicians, and the present book—two well-edited series of lectures—is lively, often fascinating. It is a relief to sense a man behind a book when, in the political literature of today, so many false messiahs wrap their tiny persons and tinier messages in a pretentious jargon.