Books: Inquisitive American

PROFILE OF EUROPE (386 pp.)—Sam Welles—Harper ($3.50).

For ten weeks, Russians of all classes (there are as many classes as ever in the "classless" Soviet society) saw the strange sight of a tall, heavy and exceedingly inquisitive American at large in their land. In a shiny ZIS limousine, usually reserved only for the very best party members, he drove 1,200 miles through the Russian countryside; in Moscow alone, he walked 300 miles. He talked to shopkeepers, housewives, farmers, Communist Party bigwigs and little wigs, schoolchildren, university professors, assembly-line workers and anyone else he could buttonhole.

For six months after that, he continued the...