As a child, she and her siblings spent summers harvesting vegetables and selling crops alongside her parents.
Described as "both ethnography and an insider's account",[6]: 214 the book's methods include "archival research, oral history interviews, and observations of community gatherings.
"[14] The book describes the migration of 130,000 Hmong from Southeast Asia to the United States following the Vietnam War, and the evolution of Hmong communities in the United States, starting with early networks based on kinship ties, and evolving into formal organizations and churches.
[15] It argues that the timing of the Hmong migration, coming after the societal shifts of the Civil Rights Era, gave Hmong people greater opportunity for social, economic, and cultural success in the United States than many waves of immigrants before them.
[16][6]: 213 Credit also goes to community leaders among the Hmong who used their loyalty to Americans and their opposition to communism during the Laotian Civil War to build social and political capital for their people.