Stephen H. Lekson weaves together the parallel narratives of a political history of the pre-Hispanic American Southwest and a critical intellectual history of southwestern archaeology. Writing in an engaging, literate, and humorous style, Lekson casts the ancient Southwest as the revolving scene of dramatic events played out by elites and commoners, locals and foreigners, imitators and innovators. The strikingly communal, democratic, and settled nature of historic Pueblo peoples is seen as a deliberate cultural reaction to a far darker past when kings ruled. Likewise, the author reacts to archaeology's preoccupation with being scientific and explaining cultural processes at the expense of understanding history.