this has to be one of the most interesting of professor tinker's books, giving short accounts of the political lives of the most significant leaders of "third world countries" and their roles in the dramatic handing over of power in the 20th century: prof tinker gives equal footing to such figures as kwame nkrumah, ho chi minh, aung san, and sukarno, whose reputations have had notably differing ends, but who he regards as the giants of the independence movements