The title deserves an explanation: Fred Ross was referred to as an activist who went around the country setting other people on fire to campaign for their civil rights. Thompson reconstructs the life of an instrumental but far lesser known figure, whose conscious decision to remain behind the scenes is a model for organizing. As a young WASP in the 1930s, he was staggered by seeing the depression, and found his metier administering a housing camp for dustbowl migrants, then an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, then a program for Japanese-Americans cleared to leave the camps and find jobs in war industry. In each case, his strength was in recognizing leaders of the minority community (his work in northern California crossed paths with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta whom he immediately began promoting as rising leaders), using his status with the worst of the establishment, but supporting the community itself to make their own decisions and demand desegregation of LA schools, better pay and conditions for farm workers and access to the vote. Thompson doesn't shy away from Ross' tragic personal life--being 110% for a cause leaves little for your family or your own health, and the author's role as a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose add special resonance to this work.