Many Western novels and movies provide insight into contemporary problems - such as sexism, racism, violence, and exploitation of the land - and advocate social change. Emmert demonstrates that such commentary is not new to Westerns; every generation has produced works that dared to criticize society. To illustrate this point, Emmert analyzes a range of Western novels and films produced prior to the late 1960s which broke with old formulas in order to comment on social ills.