Robertson Davies

"Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross, and destined to be caught in a no-man's-land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy proves, in the end, neither innocent nor innocuous."--BOOK JACKET.

The issues of race, immigration, and inter-ethnic conflict are daily copy in the world's media; so, too, is growing resistance to the presence of newcomers. In this timely and engrossing collection of his recent writings, internationally recognized sociologist Peter Rose addresses each of these subjects. Concerned mainly with U.S. policies and practices, the first part of the book includes essays on the post-1965 immigration of Asians and Latinos, the Reagan era and its legacy, the growing rhetoric of resentment, and the shifting meanings of "multiculturalism" for white and non-white Americans today. The title essay, Tempest-Tost, is about the plight of refugees. It sets the stage for the second, more narrowly focused section of the book: the making and implementing of U.S. refugee policy and the experiences of those who facilitated the rescue and resettlement of escapees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos following the fall of Saigon.