At the end of the long history of European imperialism a strange flotsam of white survivors remains in small forgotten communities throughout the globe. Some, like the Baasters of Namibia and the Burghers of Sri Lanka, are descendants of the first conquerors; others, like the Poles of Haiti or the Germans of Jamaica, are relics of the imperial armies. Still others, like the Confederados of southern Brazil, are descended from a refugee influx from distant wars. They are of little intrinsic interest except to themselves, and they have few common denominators. Their principal characteristics are poverty and pride - pride in being white.

Few people brought up in the Anglo-Saxon historical tradition would have had much interest in resurrecting their stories, so it has been left to an Italian journalist to put some life into these footnotes to history. In a world