Book Review… A Memoir of Success 

Mar 26, 2017 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

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Book: Beyond The Horizon: A Jamaican Immigrant Chases His Dream in America
Author: Ransford W. Palmer
Critic: Dr Glenville Ashby
Tales of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised climbing to the highest rung of achievement

are not unique. In every society and clime we read or hear of brilliance and perseverance trumping environmental adversity. So, what makes Ransford W. Palmer’s Beyond the Horizon different?
For starters, Palmer’s memoir is lucidly presented. He cuts to the chase and manages to cover a range of topics, never laboring on anyone in particular. Further, his story is interestingly punctuated with key chapters in 1960s American history, and we get a fair glimpse of a country teetering on the brink of an existential crisis. Therein are worthy snapshots of American life and culture.
Palmer is ‘present’ when the Kennedys are assassinated and when Martin Luther King is also felled by an assassin. He follows the subsequent riots and is present when the Vietnam Draft is gathering steam. He briefly assesses a shift in policy as 1930s Keynesian economics gives way to the dynamics of free markets, and analyzes President Reagan’s Caribbean Basin Initiative.
Earlier, mention is made of the Watergate scandal and the Cold War. Expectedly, racism and racial profiling rears its ugly head. Palmer and his American wife must withstand this institutional albatross. For sure, an interracial couple is at the crosshairs of segregationists. This is America back then. But the couple strives, succeeds and experiences the American Dream.
Throughout, he reminds us of his resilience. He would not be cowed by America and the many challenges that an immigrant faces.
“I had brought with me to America a certain sense of self-reliance that was nourished by the environment in which I grew up. This self-reliance meshed well with the do-it-yourself ethos of American culture and the “pull-yourself-up-by your-bootstraps” philosophy which underlay the American Dream.”
Palmer excels at every prestigious university and institute fortunate enough to have him. He has climbed to the highest rung of the academic ladder. He is an economist, author, publisher, researcher and one of the most sought-after lecturers on economic policy. He is also a husband and father.
Palmer proves to be prodigious, a visionary with incredible insight and resourcefulness. His work at Howard is transformational. He introduces the first PhD program in Economics and aims at creating a more competitive, research oriented institute. It’s a challenging undertaking, a Herculean task that requires a cultural shift.
He writes, “The task of turning the university around was not easy because many of the existing faculty members had been atrophied by years of non-production, and the new graduate programs would not suddenly invigorate their dormant scholarship.” He continues, “It would therefore require a cadre of new faculty members to lead the charge as non-producing faculty members either retired or were not reappointed.”
Palmer becomes an American citizen and travels extensively with his family, enjoying what his adopted country has to offer. And we too marvel at the attractions. But he has never swerved from Jamaica, his native land. He remains very nationalistic years after contesting the US air base at Vernam Field.
In 1962 he pens his concerns to Prime Minister Bustamante, part of which reads: “I am not suggesting, however, that you should not make defense arrangements with the United States. Of course, you should. But when you do, do not sign long-term treaties – treaties that will commit vast portions of our land for a great period, or in perpetuity. The 4,500 square miles of mountains and plains is all the real estate we have and we intend to have every square inch of it under our control.”
And his ensuing research leans heavily toward Caribbean development.
Surely, the reader will also identify with Palmer’s chronicle of his formative years in St. Catherine. The bucolic, rural setting; the financial hurdles and the ethos of village life. Palmer and others manage without basic amenities.
But there is contentment, gratitude, and above all, innovation. When Palmer’s younger sibling is burnt by boiling water his mother responds with the most unlikely of treatments. “She gathered some goat dung, parched it in a frying pan, pulverized it, and sprinkled it on the wounds every day for three weeks until they began to heal.”
And the magic of country living does not escape us when Palmer makes the most revelatory of observations. We are called upon to reflect. He writes, “I suppose it could be argued that we were demonstrating typical American middle-class upward mobility, in contrast to the situation in the village where I grew up where many people lived on ancestral lands from birth to death. And upon death, they were buried on their own land, ensuring an unbroken link between the living and their ancestors.” Much food for thought.
Beyond the Horizon is a triumph. For inspiration, it’s second to none. Clearly, Palmer’s accomplishments have raised the bar for success. It’s a testament to the sheer will of the human spirit and the many gifts bestowed by Providence.
Beyond The Horizon: A Jamaican immigrant Chases His Dream in America
Publisher: Xlibris, USA
ISBN: 978-1-4797-3706-2
Available at Amazon
Rating: Recommended

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