This anthology opens with several compelling first-person narratives of life inside the U.S. military institution, followed by analyses by both military and civilian researchers. The academic contributors approach their topics from different disciplines, including political science, history, sociology, and literature/film. The volume seeks to bridge the gap between those inside the institution and those on the outside (p. ix). The effort to build this bridge began with a series of specialized conferences and workshops on gender and mili- tary culture spanning the 1990s. I participated in several of these and heard some of the contributors to this collection present their research. Other volumes that developed from the conferences are Mary Fainsod Katzenstein's Faithful and Fearless (1998), Mary Fainsod Katzenstein and Judith Reppy, Beyond Zero Tolerance (1999), and Francine D'Amico and Laurie Weinstein, Gender Camouflage (1999).