The nine essays presented by John R. Wunder collectively expose the domestic and technological details of American pioneer life on the High Plains. The essays, each written by a leading authority in the field, examine such topics as early ranching and farming in the Rio Grande Valley and the Staked Plains; the impact on Native American and settler women of life on the agricultural frontier; the response to perceived threats by agriculturalists after the Civil War; and the agriculturalists' entry into the twentieth century via their response to cultural change. The final chapter, a speech made in 1890 by a Scottish traveller, contains a contemporary observation of the real and mythical qualities of life on the frontier.