The subject of this study is the more or less seasonal influx of Mexican (bracero) laborers to work in agriculture in California between 1942 and 1960. The migration began as a joint effort between the governments of Mexico and the United States to ease the manpower shortage created by World War II. Dire needs of these migrants, and their willingness to work for wages scorned by native Americans, made them an attractive labor pool for southwestern and western agriculture. The unorganized drift of bracero labor became a vast administered migration that unfortunately also gave rise to many problems. It led to corruption and to the exploitation of human beings on both sides of the border. Congressional attempts to end the program came under pressure from American employers and the Mexican government to extend it for additional periods of time. In this 6-part historical, political, sociological, and economic treatise, an analysis of the bracero system provides perspective but does not conclude the bracero story. (EJ)