Light From the Ashes arrived as I was watching the latest news about the U.S.'s war against terrorism. I have often wondered if war were declared on the U.S., as it has been declared on so many other nations during my lifetime, how I would "survive." I fear the struggle to survive almost as much as I fear death. Light From the Ashes gives new insight into what it takes to survive war, deprivation, persecution and other horrors of war and holocaust. While many who survived the Nazi Holocaust as adults have written and spoken of their experience and its affect on their remaining years, few, if any have spoken and written of the experience as a child or adolescent. This collection of how those early experiences may have shaped the choice of career in the social sciences is monumental is helping me understand the term "survivor." The essays are literate but completely comprehensible to the layman. The insights into the life of each contributor and editor (also a contributor) comes to light in some cases because they were asked to participate in this volume. It is a timely work, and, I am sad to say, will probably never be out of context in our world.