The Sri Lankan civil war, a 20-year conflict between the Sinhalese dominated government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), provides the backdrop for this edited series of seven essays. The LTTE's goal is the creation of a Tamil homeland and the right to self-determination. Deborah Wilson and Michael Woost's book is divided into three parts: Articulations of National Economic Policy and Ethnic Conflict; Articulations of Class, Ethnicity, and Violence; and Articulations of Civil War in Everyday Life. By the terms "articulations," the editors are referring to their interpretation of Stuart Hall's previous work on cultural theory. According to Hall, articulations are about social linkages that are possible, yet not necessarily inevitable, and always changing. In addition to these seven essays, the editors provide an introduction that clearly and accurately describes the situation in Sri Lanka and provides a brief history of the civil war.

The book is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between the economy and conflict that grips Sri Lanka. The general theme throughout the book maintains that the war is not merely grounded in the goals and intentions of the opposing sides, which is the more traditionalist view of conflict, but also in the everyday orientations, experiences, and material practices of the Sri Lankan people. Part economics, and part political science and sociology, the book offers a top-down exploration of conflict and a bottom-up approach as well. The focus of the work is both macro and micro in its exploration of conflict, culture, and civil war.

In part one, two essays by Shastri and Richardson provide overviews of the conflict from above, focussing on the macro view. In their essays they propose a relationship between policy and conflict that provide the basis for later works. They both focus on changing economic policy over time, how these changes are linked with violence, and the consequences for the Sri Lankan people.

In part two, Gunasinghe and Hettige explore the ways that economic policies and the civil war have changed opportunities for the Sri Lankan people. Gunasinghe's work explores the economic causes of the 1983 riots that gripped the country. These riots, which left from 350 to 4,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, marked the worst ethnic violence the country had seen since its independence from the British in 1948. Hettige then explores the conflict from an ethnic standpoint, arguing that ethnicity is not the sole cause of violence.

Part three provides the micro view of the conflicts. The three essays in this section describe how three disenfranchised groups have "articulated" with the war and their material predicaments. These essays bring the conflict to a more personal level. Collectively, they address the participants in the conflict, the economics of joining the armed services, and the moral dilemma of women's employment in the international garment industry.

One especially interesting article is Gamburd's essay, "The Economics of Enlisting: A Village View of Armed Service," (p. 151) which explores the reasons young men enter the conflict as combatants. Gamburd argues that many enlist for the economic incentives rather than out of a sense of patriotism. According to Garburd, when writing about the village of Naeaegama, "young men from the village turned to armed service as a dangerous but dependable job in a time of employment scarcity." (p. 152) By local standards the pay is quite good and comes with generous benefits, including medical care, death benefits, and other perks that are not widely available in non-military jobs.

The book is very well organized and the editors have done an excellent job of selecting essays that present a broad view of the conflict. Years of field work, research, and workshops have culminated in this well-written book. The essays are enjoyable, insightful, and challenging. Overall, this book will be useful to students, scholars, and anyone interested in conflict studies.

Chad Cross recently graduated from Eastern Illinois University with an MA in Political Science and is currently pursuing an MS in Technology at EIU