The contact of two different cultures in the colonization process produces a zone of cultural mingling; people who are betwixt and between. Armstrong examines the repercussions of colonization on the lives of women characters in novels about four different post-colonial cultural contexts--Native American, Jamaican, Irish, and Mexican American.

Armstrong begins by examining the particular historical contexts of each novel and the intersecting themes relating to the impact of colonialism such as liminality, mingling of cultures, loss and mourning, and reemergence of repressed history through oral tradition. She then looks at Louise Erdrich's novel "Tracks" in which the three primary characters respond to their experiences of personal and collective loss in the context of Anishinaabe culture; Erna Brodber's "Myal" is explored for the impact of the manichean colonial ideology on a Jamaican woman who is literally half-black and half-white. Next is an analysis of Julia O'Faolain's "No Country for Young Men" a novel about two women, one who lived through the early 20th-century movement for Irish independence and the other who is her great niece. Both have been silenced and sexually controlled by colonialism and patriarchal Catholicism. Finally the author examines Lucha Corpi's "Delia's Song" about a young Chicana activist who has suffered losses on several levels and recovers by writing an autobiographical novel that weaves together the personal and political issues of her life. The theories of Frantz Fanon, Victor Turner, Mary Douglas, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Gloria Anzaldua, and others are applied to the novels to give an understanding of the psychological impacts of colonization and to examine the subversive formations that evolve in cultural contact zones. Of particular interest to scholars and students in Women's, and Cultural Studies and world literature.

America today is witnessing the largest and most sustained wave of immigrants its borders have ever seen. Although factors like the Great Depression, World War II, and quota restrictions had slowed the massive influx of Europeans from the early part of the 20th century, policies like the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act have relaxed quotas and opened America's doors to hundreds of thousands of immigrants a year, from both Eastern and Western hemispheres, to reach a height of over 9 million immigrants in the 1990s. Today, immigrants and policy-makers alike grapple with issues regarding employment, education, refugee status, and family reunification; as well as illegal immigrants-many from Mexico, whose legal immigration alone accounts for more than 20% of immigrants in the US. Despite this, this comprehensive reference source allows a glimpse of the same motivating factors that drove earlier immigrants through Ellis Island's gates-the promise of economic opportunity and the hope of a better life. Over 70 A-Z entries address topical and timely aspects of modern US immigration, including: ; bilingual education ; domestic work ; employer sanctions ; gangs ; gender ; homeland security ; migrant education ; posttraumatic stress disorder ; stereotypes