This is only one of the latest in a long line of recent books touting the business potential of the newly independent countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Although this potential clearly exists, with a few notable exceptions it has yet to be lived up to because of widespread social and political instability and a burgeoning crime problem. Henderson, a former Wall Street Journal bureau chief, documents here the success stories and holds out the promise of unbridled growth. His is not a step-by-step, how-to manual, but rather an anecdotal account that is always informative and often entertaining. Henderson takes us to the streets, where entrepreneurship is most successfully and sometimes ruthlessly practiced. He visits company offices where an unpaved access road and lack of Scotch tape can present equally insurmountable barriers. In between Prague and Vladivostok, Henderson covers Hungary, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. -- David Rouse