Herzfeld argues that "modern" bureaucratically regulated societies are
no more "rational" or less "symbolic" than the societies traditionally
studied by anthropologists. He suggests that we cannot understand
national bureaucracies divorced from local-level ideas about chance,
personal character, social relationships and responsibility.
"Herzfeld's book is extremely ambitious and will be of interest to any
anthropologist concerned with the study of bureaucracy, organizational
and institutional control, symbols and their power, and social conflict.
. . . Thoughtful and challenging."-Helen B. Schwartzman, American
Ethnologist