"Drums Rum-Tumming" is an American story from World War 1 through World War 2, featuring times of the Andersen family during the struggles of the Red Scare, the Spanish Flu, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Drums Rum-Tumming is a sequel to "When Boys Become Men", a book about two brothers leaving Colorado, crossing the Oregon and California Trails, to experience their new state, California.