In the Belgian Chateau: The Spirit and Culture of a European Society in an Age of Change

To Fox, professor of social sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, the ``chateau'' symbolizes the hierarchy that long controlled medical research in Belgium, a subject she began to investigate 34 years ago when research policy was hammered out at a meeting in a castle. Despite her claim to represent ``European society,'' her focus is specifically on Belgium. As a respected foreign academician, Fox had entree to elite members of Belgian society, whom she profiles here. She also provides an excellent summary of recent Belgian history, and almost a third of the book is devoted to her experiences in the former Belgian Congo, which she visited as it was gaining its independence as the renamed nation of Zaire. Fox's attempt to combine a detached sociological study of Belgium-railway and postal systems, domestic architecture, family life, etc.-and a personal memoir, however, doesn't totally gel. (Sept.)