Review essay: The military and militarization in the United States

I examine three ethnographies of the U.S. military and of militarization in the contemporary United States. These phenomena have hitherto received Little scholarly attention by anthropologists. After describing the contents of the three volumes, I suggest that their wider import for anthropology Lies in their demonstration of the usefulness of the discipline's theories and analytical tools for analyzing the political economy of militarization and the unique character of an organization specializing in violence.