In reading across disciplinary boundaries, it is always interesting to encounter a work defending what was once taken for granted in one's “home” discipline. Lockert's study begins with what may be a provocative statement for anthropologists but apparently is not for political scientists: “only a few contemporary students of comparative politics employ culture as a prominent explanatory variable” (ix). Lockert explains that while culture was significant to comparativist scholars in the 1950s and 1960s, a more deductive approach using rational choice theory has become increasingly popular since the 1980s. Throughout the book, Lockert seems to be in dialogue with rational choice and institutional theorists, responding to anticipated criticisms and pointing out how culturally informed theories can be more complete.