?This comprehensive guide to the State Department's special' or lot files reflects the author's decade of experience in the diplomatic branch of the National Archives and his continued scholarly interest in US foreign relations. Lot files, covering the period 1940 to 1959, include working papers, drafts, notes, annotated copies of memoranda, minutes, reports, briefing materials, and historically valuable documentation frequently not found in the department's better-known central file. Haines's guide provides numeric, name, and subject indexes. These offer easy access to the annotated entries, each of which gives provenance, content summary, volume, access restrictions, and location. This guide should be found in all research libraries and those university libraries with strong recent US history holdings.?-Choice