Playing with Chaos — Patrick Conley

Three generations of Americans are swept up in the vortex of our history: famine, immigration, child labor, Jim Crow, railroad, baseball, the World's Fair, romance and marriage, split allegiances, the Depression, religious yearnings and religious doubts, World War II, the baby boom, Camelot, assassinations and disillusionment, Viet Nam, service and protest, hopes achieved and hopes crushed.

Looking for order amid disorder, Jack Madwyrd retreats two generations into his family's past to see how father and grandfather and even he himself have played with chaos, never absolutely winning but sometimes coming close to an even draw.