This work brings together photographers, poets and essayists to explore historical and contemporary views of "community" in the American West. Writers reject the tradition of judging western communities in terms of established values from the Eastern US and Europe, and they develop dimensions of the concept of community by studying such diverse settings and populations as the coal country of Colorado, the southern California suburbs, and the lives of ethnic and cultural minorities. Although the writers specifically discuss community in the West, the message deriving from the collection is a broader one that links this book to long-standing traditions in the humanities: this is a book about the community of humankind.