An appealing and original work, this book evokes to the reader, by its very title, Mark Twains Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court. I appreciate the challenges faced by an unworldly Ph. D. candidate from Texas in 1928, setting out bravely on a journey of exploration and discovery, motivated to understand foreign peoples and customs, the values and struggles of their time. What Joseph. S. Werlin saw and learned informed his life well beyond his academic objectives, and it informs the reader about both history and culture and the Texas greenhorn himself. Extracts of his perceptive letters, together with other documents compiled by his loving daughter, Joella Werlin, makes this a work of unusual and vivid interest. A riveting reading experience, shedding light on a gathering darkness that was to spread beyond Europe over the world. Margret Buchmann, PhD