"Thanks to Elyssa Ford’s Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion, we now see the West as it was in the Great Plains more clearly: populated by people of color with a firm sense of belonging to America regardless of demographic identity, and more populated by women and diverse sexuality than society has been taught."—Great Plains Quarterly
"Rodeo as Refuge’s in-depth study of rodeo’s complex history is one that deepens our understanding of diverse peoples of the West."—Pacific Historical Review
Ford’s work is a masterclass in interdisciplinarity, as she blends western history and cultural history, all the while asking careful questions about race, colonialism, gender, sexuality, and power."—Journal of Arizona History
"Ford does her readers a major service in placing these diverse rodeo communities in conversation with one another, showing that rodeo is a place of identity performance with multiple meanings across space and time."—Choice
“In Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion, Ford compellingly uses the rodeo to explore how lived experiences interact with mythic pasts to shape modern identities in diverse settings across North America. The theme of work and the roles of women in each rodeo are highlights in this appealing study.”—Margaret Frisbee, associate professor of history, Metropolitan State University of Denver
“Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion is an important addition to rodeo history, providing a welcome exploration of rodeo that falls outside the traditional white, masculine narrative. Well written and extensively researched, Elyssa Ford beautifully demonstrates the importance of the sport to diverse racial and outsider groups, deftly illustrating how the staging of rodeos ‘for themselves and by themselves’ provides important personal and community connection to their Western past.”—Renee M. Laegreid, author of Riding Pretty: Rodeo Royalty in the American West
“This well-researched and elegantly written work delves into the overlooked diversity of the West, as both place and idea, and the complex relationship between rodeo and identity.”—David Wolman, coauthor of Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West