Strangers At The Gates Again

Discusses recent immigrants from China, the Philippines, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia

This book contains the products of work carried out over four decades of research in Italy, France, and the United States, and in the intellectual territory between social movements, comparative politics, and historical sociology. Using a variety of methods ranging from statistical analysis to historical case studies to linguistic analysis, the book centers on historical catalogs of protest events and cycles of collective action. Sidney Tarrow places social movements in the broader arena of contentious politics, in relation to states, political parties, and other actors. From peasants and communists in 1960s Italy, to movements and politics in contemporary western polities, to the global justice movement in the new century, the book argues that contentious actors are neither outside of nor completely within politics, but rather they occupy the uncertain territory between total opposition and integration into policy.

The book is about the great issueslife, death, love, time, and eternity. I was raised Roman Catholic, and Catholic images sometimes appear in my poems. I am also a patriotic American and a Maryland poet, and these come out in my work at times as well. The issues of identity and aloneness are also part and parcel of who I am.

This issue of the Berliner Chinahefte/Chinese History and Society deals with cultural exchanges between China and the outside world and with their impact, mostly in terms of questions regarding tradition and modernity. China is understood more as an area composed of certain cultural elements which may include the Chinese (and Taiwanese) diaspora, where a sense of belonging still exists, and which exerts influence on everyday culture and habits.

Boaz Hiker—called Bo by his friends—enjoys the trappings of success: a large home in suburban Pennsylvania, a beautiful wife and daughter, and a job controlling other people’s money. Even so, something is missing. Before he can figure out what it is, the world descends into darkness, and Bo begins a perilous journey in the attempt to reunite with his family. Traveling through a bizarre new world, Hiker meets prophets, priests, and pilgrims—and eventually encounters a mysterious, unnamed Stranger with tremendous powers. His only guides are a compass of unsurpassed craftsmanship and his own moral compass. These guides will determine whether he can save his wife, his daughter, and the rest of humanity. In this dramatic, post-apocalyptic tale of good versus evil, one good man must make the right decisions and overcome obstacles to save the world. If he doesn’t, a fallen angel will rule over a dark and evil world. Cover illustration by Billie Michael

These essays look at U.S. immigration and the nexus between urban realities and immigrant destinies. They argue that immigration today is fundamentaly urban and that immigrants are flocking to places where low-skilled workers are in trouble.

Louise de Bernard’s long-ago past in Nazi-occupied France comes back to haunt her when a woman shows up on her doorstep demanding payback On a tranquil tree-lined street in Paris, a woman exits a taxi. She has come from Bonn, Germany, on a mission of desperation and revenge. And in a house on the Rue de Varenne, a wife and mother is about to relive the past she thought she’d left far behind. In 1944, in Nazi-occupied France, circumstances forced Jean de Bernard and his wife to put up a German officer at their isolated chateau in St. Blaize. The American-born Louise de Bernard despised Major Heinz Minden—and her husband even more for collaborating with the Germans when their tanks first rumbled through their centuries-old village. Into this seething hotbed of betrayal and brutality, Roger Savage arrives. The undercover Allied agent recruits Louise to help him destroy a lethal nerve gas the Germans are secretly manufacturing nearby. But now a high-ranking Nazi general is dead, and an entire village is about to be punished in the most merciless and horrifying way. Culminating in post-war Germany as an SS officer prepares to stand trial for wartime atrocities, Stranger at the Gates is a spine-tingling page-turner about family and sacrifice, loyalty and love, and how ordinary people can become heroes.