Rosenbaum uses oral history and folk songs, a wide range of local documents, archival materials, and Spanish language newspapers, together with insights drawn from cultural anthropology, political science, and peasant studies to shed light on the motivations of groups of people who left few written records.

Focusing on a too-often-ignored aspect of westward expansion, Rosenbaum's study counters the stereotype of Mexican-American fatalism and passivity. This seminal book will appeal to those interested in transitions to modernity, primordial violence, developing class consciousness, cultural conflict and accommodation.