Dreams of a Great Small Nation: The Mutinous Army That Threatened a Revolution, Destroyed an Empire, Founded a Nation, and Made the Map of Europe

McNamara (associate scholar, Foreign Policy Research Inst.) shares a valuable story that is relatively unknown and understood in the West. Through careful translation of primary Czecho-Slovakian documents, the author chronicles the Czecho-Slovakian legion, its military history in Russia in the late 1910s, and its political leader Tomáš Masaryk; all of which led to the creation of the Czecho-Slovakian nation as a result of the upheaval surrounding the events of World War I. McNamara's journalistic background is evident in terms of his pacing and the various structuring devices he uses, creating a narrative that reads more like a series of articles than a history text. The overwhelming amount of source content occasionally contributes to a muddled narrative as the plethora of compelling stories can detract from the clarity of each perspective.