Hana Cervinkova, Playing Soldiers in Bohemia: An Ethnography of NATO Membership. Prague Studies in Sociocultural Anthropology 4, 2006, 161 pages.

Hana Cervinkova’s ethnographic portrait of the Czech military in its “post-socialist” moment is a fascinating contribution to the literature on post-communist transitions. Not merely concerned with the provision of several anthropological descriptions of disappearing cultures, such as the obsolescent enlisted ranks and Air Force technicians expert in the mechanics of moth-balled Soviet aircraft, Cervinkova is determined to link the military’s post-socialist story to the Czech state’s own fort...