Both World Wars during the twentieth century originated in the Slavic countries and in the efforts of various Slavic groups to obtain and retain their national independence and the right to their own language and culture. Currently, Russian Communist imperialism overshadows the Slavic countries, once again threatening their national heritage and creating new world tensions. Since aggression in the Slavic countries has twice resulted in global wars, the United States, as well as the entire Western world, has begun to concentrate attention upon the Slavs, their history, their culture, their aspirations. One phenomenon which sharply differentiates the scope of Slavic and East European studies in the United States from the purely academic studies elsewhere in the world, is the presence in this country of ten million Slavic immigrants and their descendents, who have played an increasingly vital role in our national culture by blending their native qualities, knowledge and traditions into the American heritage. Public and educational leaders in the United States are seriously supporting attempts to develop a Slavic scholarship commensurate with American educational traditions. _A History of Slavic Studies in the United States_ points to the gradual evolution of Slavic and East European studies in this country and points out some of the more hopeful paths for future education, so that the United States may make the best use of the resources, both intellectual and material, that it has at its disposal. [Illustration: MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS] THE MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1131 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee 3, Wisconsin ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.