The author examines the tragic conflict in Northern Ireland in relation to other social conflicts, both past and present, that have similar characteristics. He sees Northern Ireland as a "frontier" society existing on a periphery of a highly developed modern state. Its people are split between a dominant population who regard themselves as citizens of the mother country, and a dominated population who are seen as being inferior or alien. Wright makes comparisons with the American South where racial conflicts have been contained and ameliorated to the point where the South is indistinguishable from the rest of the United States; and French Algeria, from which 95% of the French population emigrated when Algeria became independent in 1962. Also examined and compared with Northern Ireland is the zone of mixed German nationality on the pre-World War II German borderlands.
