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ZOUEV, Alexandre, ed., GENERATION IN JEOPARDY: Children in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Annonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998, 206 pp., $42.95 hardcover / $19.95 softcover.
For one more familiar with literature on "at-risk" children in North America and Western Europe, reading this UNICEF-sponsored book was an eye-opening experience. In many ways, the children in the region covered in this volume have been living in thirdworld conditions since the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The book provides a comprehensive picture of the effects of the dismantling of the socialist safety net on the health and welfare of some 150 million children in these "transitional" societies.
The volume is organized into three parts. The first provides an overview of social conditions and includes chapters on social and economic costs, health, the environment, nutrition, and education. The second part focuses on child protection, with chapters on the effects of war, neglect, abuse, and exploitation, child labor, and juvenile crime. The final part includes chapters on individual countries and regions and a chapter on minority groups. In addition, there is a Foreword...