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The Great Plains
This classic description of the interaction between the vast central plains of America and the people who lived there has, since its first publication in 1931, been one of the most influential, widely known, and controversial works in western history. Arguing that "the Great Plains environment. . .constitutes a geographic unity whose influences have been so powerful as to put a characteristic mark upon everything that survives within its borders," Webb singles out the revolver, barbed wire, and the windmill as evidence of the new phase of civilization required for settlement of that arid, treeless region. Webb draws on history, anthropology, geography, demographics, climatology, and economics to substantiate his thesis that the 98th meridian constituted an institutional fault—comparable to a geological fault—at which "practically every institution that was carried across it was either broken and remade or else greatly altered."
525 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
11 people are currently reading
513 people want to read
About the author
Walter Prescott Webb
62 books12 followers Webb was raised on the family farm in rural Panola County, Texas. After graduating from Ranger High School in Ranger in Eastland County, he earned a teaching certificate and taught at several Texas schools. He eventually attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1915 at the age of twenty-seven. He worked as bookkeeper in San Marcos and optometrist's assistant in San Antonio, then in 1918 he was invited to join the history faculty at the University of Texas. He wrote his Master of Arts thesis on the Texas Rangers in 1920 and was encouraged to pursue his PhD. After a year of study at the University of Chicago, he returned to Austin, where he began a historical work on the West. The result of this work was The Great Plains, published in 1931, hailed as great breakthrough in the interpretation of the history of the region, and declared the outstanding contribution to American history since World War I by the Social Science Research Council in 1939. He was awarded his PhD for his work on The Great Plains in 1932, the year after its publication.
In 1939-1946 he served as president of the Texas State Historical Association. During his tenure as president, he launched a project to produce an encyclopedia of Texas, which was subsequently published in 1952 as the Handbook of Texas. Webb wrote or edited more than 20 books. One of them, The Texas Rangers (1935) is considered the definitive study of the legendary Texas Rangers and its Captain Bill McDonald.
In 1958 Webb served as president of the American Historical Association.
Webb was killed in an automobile accident near Austin, Texas in 1963.In his honor the University of Texas established the Walter Prescott Webb Chair of History and Ideas. Webb Middle School in Austin, Texas is also named after him
In 1939-1946 he served as president of the Texas State Historical Association. During his tenure as president, he launched a project to produce an encyclopedia of Texas, which was subsequently published in 1952 as the Handbook of Texas. Webb wrote or edited more than 20 books. One of them, The Texas Rangers (1935) is considered the definitive study of the legendary Texas Rangers and its Captain Bill McDonald.
In 1958 Webb served as president of the American Historical Association.
Webb was killed in an automobile accident near Austin, Texas in 1963.In his honor the University of Texas established the Walter Prescott Webb Chair of History and Ideas. Webb Middle School in Austin, Texas is also named after him
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 1, 2008
I ahve to be honest. Webb is a big Texas nationalist (ok, maybe that's a big strong.) But his leanings--he wrote a book on the Texas Rangers that goes short of applauding)--needs to be taken into account. however...a big however...this book is awesome. His chapter alone on the geologic formation of the Great Plains is breathtaking. His ideas about how aridity forced Americans to culturally adapt isn't bad either. He talks a lot about the invention of the Colt six-shooter and why environmental necessity dictated its invention (this lets him talk about the Rangers) and how the horse actually stopped the Spanish from fully colonizing la frontera del norte. If you like environmental studies and how environment changes people, read this.
January 14, 2023
Continuously in print for ninety years, The Great Plains, by Walter Prescott Webb, now has a second edition, with a new introduction by Andy Graybill. Other than the new introduction, and a revised index, there are no changes to the text. The work originated with Ginn & Co., an educational publisher, in 1931, and subsequently went to paperback with University of Nebraska Press. For most of its life in print as a Bison Book fom Nebraska, the cover sported a cowboy on horseback. I suspect Webb would have liked that, although certainly a step down from the embossed bison on the original edition (of which I own two copies, one with uncut pages). Subsequently Nebraska replaced the cowboy with a self-propelled combine, which was a gross anachronism. For the cover of the second edition, the publisher has chosen a landscape painting, mostly blue sky and clouds, for the cover. The text has been reset in a new interior design. I think it is not quite as readable as the original, but I don't want to be cranky. I do dislike the titles and running heads in a feeble, nonserif font. That's enough about that. (Thanks to Dr. Suzzanne Kelley for talking me through the design matters.)
The value added is the Graybill intro, which is quite good. I would characterize it as contextual. It details the circumstances of the work's origin along with a restrained profile of its author; it dwells upon the critical reaction to the book, immediately after publication and through the years; and it is frank as to the book's shortcomings, while crediting its rhetorical and interpretive power. Be sure to read the footnotes, which are a story unto themselves, a parallel narrative, just as they should be.
I would be interested in a bit more analytic approach to the text, but the introduction to the new edition probably is not the place for it. We'll do that elsewhere. Open question: is this handsome edition--French flaps and all--destined to lay the book to rest or reopen discusion of it?
The value added is the Graybill intro, which is quite good. I would characterize it as contextual. It details the circumstances of the work's origin along with a restrained profile of its author; it dwells upon the critical reaction to the book, immediately after publication and through the years; and it is frank as to the book's shortcomings, while crediting its rhetorical and interpretive power. Be sure to read the footnotes, which are a story unto themselves, a parallel narrative, just as they should be.
I would be interested in a bit more analytic approach to the text, but the introduction to the new edition probably is not the place for it. We'll do that elsewhere. Open question: is this handsome edition--French flaps and all--destined to lay the book to rest or reopen discusion of it?
October 31, 2012
Walter Prescott Webb’s The Great Plains takes a topical approach and study of the effect that the Great Plains had on those who attempted to settle it. The thesis of the book is to show how, “the Great Plains have bent and molded Anglo-American life, have destroyed traditions, and have influenced institutions in a most singular manner” (8). Essentially, Webb describes the Plains as a completely different place that Americans had to adapt to after crossing west of the 98th Meridian. To the east, he writes that civilization stood on three legs: land, water and timber. The Plains simply had land as its only resource and because of that forced American civilization to change.
The book begins with an explanation of the environment on the Great Plains and explains that they can be defined as any area that is treeless, semi-arid, and level. On top of those characteristics, Webb also outlines the importance of wind to the region, especially of “hot winds” that kill corn and other crops by the acre. In the winter, those hot winds turn to blizzards, offering another challenge for life. He also addresses the animals that reside on the Plains and characterizes them as hardened for life there and so tough that the only way to kill them is to break their back. Among these animals are the American Bison (he uses the term Buffalo), Pronghorn, Jackrabbits, and Prairie Dogs. Each of them presented their own problem for settlers. They all eat grass and plants making it difficult to grow crops without proper management. He addresses the fact that the Buffalo was the most important animal to Plains life because it provided food and shelter for the Indians and explains that they both come to an end around the same time, 1876 with the Plains Wars.
Next, Webb explains the difference in approach that the Spanish took toward the Great Plains compared to the Americans and explains why Americans did a better job of settling the region. The issue that the Spanish met was the fact that they there was nothing on the Plains that they wanted to possess, leaving only the Indians to impress their will on. Previous to their territorial expansion on the Plains, they conquered the Latin American Indian cultures for their resources on top the spread of Christianity. Simply put, the Spanish goals did not fit with the structure of the itinerant Plains Indians. The Spanish encomienda system was set up to take advantage of people who were willing to tend the land and animals there, an obvious issue when they ran into a culture of hunters and gatherers who did not have the knowledge. The American strategy for settling the West was to provide trade routes through it and then settle those in the area through economics. Webb explains that the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail were beneficial to the quick spread of American influence in the West and that the Plains, because of their lack of resources, caused Americans to move West more quickly than they would if it were wooded like the East. The six-shooter helped settlers to fight Plains Indians on horseback giving them an advantage thus making it easier to defend themselves against them and forcing them to give in to their will. Webb explains that the change to the six-shooter from the long-rifle was one of the major adaptions to Plains life by Americans.
Webb continues explaining how Americans adapted to life on the Plains by explaining the new methods and technology that allowed the region to become important agriculturally. He explains that at first agrarian culture jumped over the Plains to the Pacific slope and then worked backward from there. While waiting for new technology to allow the Plains to be farmable those living there found the most productive use of the land was for cattle creating what he calls the “Cattle Kingdom.” He outlines the development and importance of Texas to the cattle industry and vice versa while explaining the necessity for long drives and the creation of cattle trails to major railheads that allowed for their commodity to be transported to the East. The Cattle Kingdom came to an end with the Industrial Revolution and created a new way of life on the Plains. Webb credits the expansion and support of the railroad industry by the United States government as the reason for the decline in the cattle industry. More railheads were established to the South relieving the need for the cattle drive and the development of the refrigerated railcar put it to its end. Barbed wire allowed the free range to be managed as personal property of those with homesteads. Basically, because of the lack of timber in the region, it was difficult to fence. Barbed wire allowed homesteaders to fence off their property and keep others off. The final piece of new technology solved the water problem in the arid/semi-arid Plains. The windmill allowed water to be taken out of the ground and for the beginnings of an irrigation system to be set up to grow limited types of crops.
With many of the major obstructions to development taken away by new technology, prairie farmers were able to expand the amount of farmable land and the government made its first attempt with the Homestead Act to get people to the region to further its development. After people moved to the Plains and began to farm, water rights became the largest issue and the government regulated it with the Desert Land Act of 1877 that limited the amount of land that could be used for farming. Along these lines, the final major issue and argument that Webb addresses is the quarrel between southerners and the government with regards to land and water distribution and expansion onto the Plains. He argues that this hurt the South economically for much of the future and hindered its growth.
The Great Plains was an important addition to the study of the history of the West because it offered a new interpretation on the place that it began. Instead of considering it simply west of the Mississippi River, he writes that it begins where the woodlands end. This is the key reason that the American way of life changed as it expanded west. Reviewers of the work acknowledge his viewpoint that differed from previous ideas about the region. They also give him high marks for his narrative and colorful writing style and the way he synthesized the disciplines of sociology, ecology, and geography with history. Besides this, they criticize the book because it lacks primary source research and uses secondary sources from close to the period. Overall though, they explain that the book is an important study of the West that should not be overlooked.
In line with reviewers, Webb’s book is a relatively easy read and his ideas are presented clearly. He restates his ideas and thesis throughout the book and gives ample explanation for the way that the Plains changed American life. He does not use many citations but provides a bibliography at the end of each chapter for somebody who would like to look more deeply into a certain topic. Adding to the ease of understanding, he also uses many maps, charts, and diagrams that benefit and clarify many of his ideas and gives a visual representation and proof for those.
The book begins with an explanation of the environment on the Great Plains and explains that they can be defined as any area that is treeless, semi-arid, and level. On top of those characteristics, Webb also outlines the importance of wind to the region, especially of “hot winds” that kill corn and other crops by the acre. In the winter, those hot winds turn to blizzards, offering another challenge for life. He also addresses the animals that reside on the Plains and characterizes them as hardened for life there and so tough that the only way to kill them is to break their back. Among these animals are the American Bison (he uses the term Buffalo), Pronghorn, Jackrabbits, and Prairie Dogs. Each of them presented their own problem for settlers. They all eat grass and plants making it difficult to grow crops without proper management. He addresses the fact that the Buffalo was the most important animal to Plains life because it provided food and shelter for the Indians and explains that they both come to an end around the same time, 1876 with the Plains Wars.
Next, Webb explains the difference in approach that the Spanish took toward the Great Plains compared to the Americans and explains why Americans did a better job of settling the region. The issue that the Spanish met was the fact that they there was nothing on the Plains that they wanted to possess, leaving only the Indians to impress their will on. Previous to their territorial expansion on the Plains, they conquered the Latin American Indian cultures for their resources on top the spread of Christianity. Simply put, the Spanish goals did not fit with the structure of the itinerant Plains Indians. The Spanish encomienda system was set up to take advantage of people who were willing to tend the land and animals there, an obvious issue when they ran into a culture of hunters and gatherers who did not have the knowledge. The American strategy for settling the West was to provide trade routes through it and then settle those in the area through economics. Webb explains that the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail were beneficial to the quick spread of American influence in the West and that the Plains, because of their lack of resources, caused Americans to move West more quickly than they would if it were wooded like the East. The six-shooter helped settlers to fight Plains Indians on horseback giving them an advantage thus making it easier to defend themselves against them and forcing them to give in to their will. Webb explains that the change to the six-shooter from the long-rifle was one of the major adaptions to Plains life by Americans.
Webb continues explaining how Americans adapted to life on the Plains by explaining the new methods and technology that allowed the region to become important agriculturally. He explains that at first agrarian culture jumped over the Plains to the Pacific slope and then worked backward from there. While waiting for new technology to allow the Plains to be farmable those living there found the most productive use of the land was for cattle creating what he calls the “Cattle Kingdom.” He outlines the development and importance of Texas to the cattle industry and vice versa while explaining the necessity for long drives and the creation of cattle trails to major railheads that allowed for their commodity to be transported to the East. The Cattle Kingdom came to an end with the Industrial Revolution and created a new way of life on the Plains. Webb credits the expansion and support of the railroad industry by the United States government as the reason for the decline in the cattle industry. More railheads were established to the South relieving the need for the cattle drive and the development of the refrigerated railcar put it to its end. Barbed wire allowed the free range to be managed as personal property of those with homesteads. Basically, because of the lack of timber in the region, it was difficult to fence. Barbed wire allowed homesteaders to fence off their property and keep others off. The final piece of new technology solved the water problem in the arid/semi-arid Plains. The windmill allowed water to be taken out of the ground and for the beginnings of an irrigation system to be set up to grow limited types of crops.
With many of the major obstructions to development taken away by new technology, prairie farmers were able to expand the amount of farmable land and the government made its first attempt with the Homestead Act to get people to the region to further its development. After people moved to the Plains and began to farm, water rights became the largest issue and the government regulated it with the Desert Land Act of 1877 that limited the amount of land that could be used for farming. Along these lines, the final major issue and argument that Webb addresses is the quarrel between southerners and the government with regards to land and water distribution and expansion onto the Plains. He argues that this hurt the South economically for much of the future and hindered its growth.
The Great Plains was an important addition to the study of the history of the West because it offered a new interpretation on the place that it began. Instead of considering it simply west of the Mississippi River, he writes that it begins where the woodlands end. This is the key reason that the American way of life changed as it expanded west. Reviewers of the work acknowledge his viewpoint that differed from previous ideas about the region. They also give him high marks for his narrative and colorful writing style and the way he synthesized the disciplines of sociology, ecology, and geography with history. Besides this, they criticize the book because it lacks primary source research and uses secondary sources from close to the period. Overall though, they explain that the book is an important study of the West that should not be overlooked.
In line with reviewers, Webb’s book is a relatively easy read and his ideas are presented clearly. He restates his ideas and thesis throughout the book and gives ample explanation for the way that the Plains changed American life. He does not use many citations but provides a bibliography at the end of each chapter for somebody who would like to look more deeply into a certain topic. Adding to the ease of understanding, he also uses many maps, charts, and diagrams that benefit and clarify many of his ideas and gives a visual representation and proof for those.
January 31, 2022
As with any history text that is nearing its centennial year, THE GREAT PLAINS by Walter Prescott Webb has elements that are outdated, and elements that have not aged well at all. Even so, the basic ideas in Webb's pioneering work on the "great American desert" still hold up remarkably well.
Webb was an environmental determinist, and probably also a technological determinist. The book explored the social, economic and cultural choices of human beings living in the arid and semi-arid center of North America, and showed how humans would need to make certain adaptations to the region in order to survive and succeed. The history of the plains, he tells us, is a history of bad assumptions, late adaptation, and significant suffering. It also, though, is a history of people (and peoples) making critical choices in an area that has little compassion for error. The Spanish, the powerful Native American tribes of the region, and US settlers all undertook different adaptations in response to the demands of the region.
Webb also looked at the history of US land policy as one that constantly pitted Eastern expectations and laws against the demands and realities of the plains. Webb focused on four historical complexes: "weapons, tools, laws and literature." In doing so he showed that at least some of the problems that the west faced were avoidable, and that land usage, water management and other decisions regarding settlement were designed for humid regions like Europe and the eastern US, and were ill suited to the arid Great Plains.
Webb's nearness to the time gave him an interesting perspective, and the book is relatively readable despite large swathes of it concerning topics such as settlement patterns and water rights. The book is badly marred by Webb's abysmal take on Native Americans and prairie women, and some of his assumptions and examples have been challenged over the last century. But THE GREAT PLAINS lays out the big-picture traditional history of the Great Plains very well, and is an excellent starting point for understanding the region.
Webb was an environmental determinist, and probably also a technological determinist. The book explored the social, economic and cultural choices of human beings living in the arid and semi-arid center of North America, and showed how humans would need to make certain adaptations to the region in order to survive and succeed. The history of the plains, he tells us, is a history of bad assumptions, late adaptation, and significant suffering. It also, though, is a history of people (and peoples) making critical choices in an area that has little compassion for error. The Spanish, the powerful Native American tribes of the region, and US settlers all undertook different adaptations in response to the demands of the region.
Webb also looked at the history of US land policy as one that constantly pitted Eastern expectations and laws against the demands and realities of the plains. Webb focused on four historical complexes: "weapons, tools, laws and literature." In doing so he showed that at least some of the problems that the west faced were avoidable, and that land usage, water management and other decisions regarding settlement were designed for humid regions like Europe and the eastern US, and were ill suited to the arid Great Plains.
Webb's nearness to the time gave him an interesting perspective, and the book is relatively readable despite large swathes of it concerning topics such as settlement patterns and water rights. The book is badly marred by Webb's abysmal take on Native Americans and prairie women, and some of his assumptions and examples have been challenged over the last century. But THE GREAT PLAINS lays out the big-picture traditional history of the Great Plains very well, and is an excellent starting point for understanding the region.
October 5, 2011
Creey racism at its worst. Still read for environmental history, but only because it was the first. Check out (if you can stand it) parts of the book where he celebrates genocide and conquest, and compares Mexican blood to filthy ditch water.
January 23, 2019
Having grown up right on the 98th (gotta read the book), I enjoyed learning more about this unique region, how it was defined and some of the issues/trends that helped and hindered its growth. My grandfather and his brothers were homesteaders. As when any book, I enjoyed some chapters more than others but overall I enjoyed the read.
May 5, 2015
This is a tough book to grade. Obviously, the test of time has proven to dispel many of the romantic myths, as well as show the book for its racism, misogyny, and allusions of grander when it comes to American Expansionism. Not to mention, many of his physical definitions and analyses are incorrect. As well, he forgets to mention the endless amounts of immigrants migrating the Plains, as well as the nuisances with RR owned/sold lands versus lands sold to Homesteaders. I could go on and on....
But, for 1931, for what it was, it was an excellent work. Furthermore, it was brilliant in trying to capture the essence of environmental history and allowed future historians, notably in the field of environmental history, to use his approach of how land shaped humans, and humans shaped the environment, as a way of viewing history. Despite my aforementioned issues with the book, as viewed in 2014, much of it is very well done and accurate to this day.
Although the book has issues, its significance -- much like FJT's thesis -- is unquestionable. Whether one likes it or not in 2014, it serves as a work that must be digested and used in contrast to works that followed -- most likey inspired by this book!
But, for 1931, for what it was, it was an excellent work. Furthermore, it was brilliant in trying to capture the essence of environmental history and allowed future historians, notably in the field of environmental history, to use his approach of how land shaped humans, and humans shaped the environment, as a way of viewing history. Despite my aforementioned issues with the book, as viewed in 2014, much of it is very well done and accurate to this day.
Although the book has issues, its significance -- much like FJT's thesis -- is unquestionable. Whether one likes it or not in 2014, it serves as a work that must be digested and used in contrast to works that followed -- most likey inspired by this book!
August 4, 2013
This is history of an old fashioned sort, mixed in with a Westerner's pride.
The treatment of Mexicans, Indians and sometimes of all others than Anglo-Americans might not have raised eyebrows in 1929. The Plains were a challenge fo courageous men, but had a tendency to drive women mad.
The first part of the book is a sweeping and enjoyable take on the pre-conquestera: physical geography and climate dictates all; Indians adapt, though the nomadic people of the plains are a more savage obstacle to the eventual settlement than the more placid people east of the Mississippi valley. (more to come)
The treatment of Mexicans, Indians and sometimes of all others than Anglo-Americans might not have raised eyebrows in 1929. The Plains were a challenge fo courageous men, but had a tendency to drive women mad.
The first part of the book is a sweeping and enjoyable take on the pre-conquestera: physical geography and climate dictates all; Indians adapt, though the nomadic people of the plains are a more savage obstacle to the eventual settlement than the more placid people east of the Mississippi valley. (more to come)
February 1, 2020
This only thing this that this book is good for is dispelling any and all myths about the American West, but it would have been better if Webb had never written it or was born at all.
He treats Western Men™️ like Super Saiyan’s rapidly increasing his power level when he enters the plains, gets on a horse, and is armed with a revolver.
Not to mention that with the little representation they receive, indigenous people and people of color are represented as not actually human and women are almost entirely non existent.
Complete and utter fiction.
He treats Western Men™️ like Super Saiyan’s rapidly increasing his power level when he enters the plains, gets on a horse, and is armed with a revolver.
Not to mention that with the little representation they receive, indigenous people and people of color are represented as not actually human and women are almost entirely non existent.
Complete and utter fiction.
April 25, 2025
This was one of the densest and most illuminating books I’ve read in a long time. If you want a near-complete history of the American West, this is the book for you. From the Spanish invasion, the adoption of the horse by Plains Indian tribes, analysis on the differences between Plains Indians and Timber Indians, and much much more, this book covers a massive amount of ground in 505 pages. As someone who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas right on the edge of the plains, I’ve spent quite a bit of time crossing the line between timber and seas of grass. I always just thought of it as going from Fort Worth to Weatherford and found the drive a bit dull, but this book put this contrast into perspective. On foot, the difference between a humid forest and the plains is massive. How can you even tell where you are going when everything is flat?
I definitely found myself getting tired of this booked towards the end. After great chapters on the rise of the Cattle Kingdom (the boom before the great Texas oil boom) and the invention of barbed wire and the surprising cost of pre-barbed wire fencing, I felt that the next few chapters were a bit drier. Learning about the importance of windmills was interesting, but it didn’t have the same drama as some of the other historical periods. Land rights also didn’t have a strong narrative. Still, I have to give this 5 stars. This book contains everything I learned from Empire of the Summer Moon (the book whose reference brought me to this one) in a chapter or two. It’s a damn good read.
I definitely found myself getting tired of this booked towards the end. After great chapters on the rise of the Cattle Kingdom (the boom before the great Texas oil boom) and the invention of barbed wire and the surprising cost of pre-barbed wire fencing, I felt that the next few chapters were a bit drier. Learning about the importance of windmills was interesting, but it didn’t have the same drama as some of the other historical periods. Land rights also didn’t have a strong narrative. Still, I have to give this 5 stars. This book contains everything I learned from Empire of the Summer Moon (the book whose reference brought me to this one) in a chapter or two. It’s a damn good read.
September 6, 2022
While this book has many flaws that could be enumerated by hours of tediously spent free time, it is better to sketch the blessings within. It is a field creating book. Thus it paint a broad brush that leads to further inquiry. Most people can find something of interest within. It's use of environment makes it a proto-environmental history. It is pretty easy to follow the argument and it's details.
January 22, 2020
The impact of the Great Plains on the culture and identity of the United States makes for an interesting read. I will say I found much of it fascinating.
I gave it four stars because it can sometime get bogged down academia. I was introduced to this book in a college Texas History course. It’s nice to finally get around to actually reading it many years later.
I gave it four stars because it can sometime get bogged down academia. I was introduced to this book in a college Texas History course. It’s nice to finally get around to actually reading it many years later.
September 14, 2017
At this point this work serves us better as a primary source than a secondary source.
August 31, 2021
The great classic by the father of History of the Southwest.
October 3, 2024
racist. thesis doesn’t hold water. so many other comprehensive documents about the great plains as a region. don’t waste your time <3
July 25, 2025
I enjoyed his process and perspective. Good history.
December 27, 2017
A wonderful history of the American frontier as it passed out of the wooded East and onto the seemingly endless grassed plains of Mid-America. It was wriritten by historian Walter Webb in the days when academics wrote for the general public, not just for their academic peers. This book has value for not only those interested in American history but for those interested in the early development of natural resource, and land and water management policy.
Webb cites the conditions that characterize the Great Plains: a level area of considerable extent, treeless, and sub-humid, that is, with insufficient rainfall to carry out normal agriculture. West of the Mississippi, as his map shows, there are vast areas that possess one or two of the conditions, but Webb's specific focus is on those areas that have all three. These areas he refers to as the Central Great Plains, or the High Plains. His opening chapter details the natural history of the region, explaining in turn the geological origins, the climate, the plant life, and the animal life.
His three following chapters describe the peopling of this area, the Plains Indians, the Spanish, and the Americans, explaining how each interacted with the physical conditions, and with one another.
In discussing the Americans, he writes of how the Great Plains formed a barrier to the expansion of
the South and its plantation agriculture. This barrier helped shape the subsequent political crisis over slave versus free states as the American nation grew.
What became the early agriculture of the Great Plains, the Cattle Kingdom, he explores in two chapters. The first deals with the origin and spread of the Kingdom, and of its principal unique features, the round-up and the cattle drive. The second addresses the need for fencing in a treeless area that lead to the introduction of barbed wire, causing conflict, while the introduction of the railroad for transportation changed the marketing of cattle.
Farmers were persistent in wanting to farm the vast new acreage but, as Webb explains, the varied means they employed to get water bore limited success. This led to the development of new national policies for both land and water. Increased acreage for land grants to homesteaders was one approach that was tried. The creation of the Bureau of Reclamation with its huge dams was another.
Webb spends a chapter discussing the literature associated with the Great Plains. Pioneering of the Great Plains was far different from that of the earlier settlers working their way through the forests. Webb contends that the experience on the Plains "is the more romantic." The literature of the Cattle Kingdom includes the still practiced "cowboy poetry," of which a number of classic examples are given. Among the authors mentioned are Hamlin Garland, Owen Wister "a Pennsylvanian who wrote a story of a Virginian in Montana," (The Virginian), along with a number of the cowboy poets. Overall, however, at the time Webb was writing in 1931 he found "no large body of literature dealing with the frontier of the Great Plains" despite his obvious love for the region.
His concluding chapter, "The Mysteries of the Great Plains in American Life" is broader, more philosophical, and speculative. Here he touches upon where human life originated, the forest or the plains; the perceived lawlessness of the West; what makes the Westerner "Radical?" and the spiritual effect of the Great Plains on American women who lived there, among other topics.
The book contains a number of helpful maps, drawings, and a bibliography for each chapter. It is a solid, basic resource for a beginning study of this vast piece of America.
Webb cites the conditions that characterize the Great Plains: a level area of considerable extent, treeless, and sub-humid, that is, with insufficient rainfall to carry out normal agriculture. West of the Mississippi, as his map shows, there are vast areas that possess one or two of the conditions, but Webb's specific focus is on those areas that have all three. These areas he refers to as the Central Great Plains, or the High Plains. His opening chapter details the natural history of the region, explaining in turn the geological origins, the climate, the plant life, and the animal life.
His three following chapters describe the peopling of this area, the Plains Indians, the Spanish, and the Americans, explaining how each interacted with the physical conditions, and with one another.
In discussing the Americans, he writes of how the Great Plains formed a barrier to the expansion of
the South and its plantation agriculture. This barrier helped shape the subsequent political crisis over slave versus free states as the American nation grew.
What became the early agriculture of the Great Plains, the Cattle Kingdom, he explores in two chapters. The first deals with the origin and spread of the Kingdom, and of its principal unique features, the round-up and the cattle drive. The second addresses the need for fencing in a treeless area that lead to the introduction of barbed wire, causing conflict, while the introduction of the railroad for transportation changed the marketing of cattle.
Farmers were persistent in wanting to farm the vast new acreage but, as Webb explains, the varied means they employed to get water bore limited success. This led to the development of new national policies for both land and water. Increased acreage for land grants to homesteaders was one approach that was tried. The creation of the Bureau of Reclamation with its huge dams was another.
Webb spends a chapter discussing the literature associated with the Great Plains. Pioneering of the Great Plains was far different from that of the earlier settlers working their way through the forests. Webb contends that the experience on the Plains "is the more romantic." The literature of the Cattle Kingdom includes the still practiced "cowboy poetry," of which a number of classic examples are given. Among the authors mentioned are Hamlin Garland, Owen Wister "a Pennsylvanian who wrote a story of a Virginian in Montana," (The Virginian), along with a number of the cowboy poets. Overall, however, at the time Webb was writing in 1931 he found "no large body of literature dealing with the frontier of the Great Plains" despite his obvious love for the region.
His concluding chapter, "The Mysteries of the Great Plains in American Life" is broader, more philosophical, and speculative. Here he touches upon where human life originated, the forest or the plains; the perceived lawlessness of the West; what makes the Westerner "Radical?" and the spiritual effect of the Great Plains on American women who lived there, among other topics.
The book contains a number of helpful maps, drawings, and a bibliography for each chapter. It is a solid, basic resource for a beginning study of this vast piece of America.
December 3, 2014
...excellent text book used in HIST431 course at NDSU...eminently readable...almost a novel but teeming with facts, many of which I was unaware of even with a youth spent on the plains...barbed wire fence was a revelation...fairly long page-wise so a bit of a grind but enjoyable...this was my second read and comparing this to Fredrick Jackson Turners "Rise of the New West" it is a summer beach read...if you want to know what made the plains what they are today this is the book...a classic...
December 16, 2012
This is one of the most outstanding works in American History - both at the level of narrative and at the historiographical level. Webb presents the reader with a vast array of prisms to view the history of not only the Great Plains, but America as a whole. There are shortcomings to this work, but any reader of history is well served to plumb this work.
October 29, 2014
Wallace Stegner suggested that this book was the quintessential encyclopedia of Western history. It was written in the early part of the 20th century and was hard to find and get, yet it reads vital to today's readers. No study of Western history is complete without this book. Delightfully thorough and honest. And important and broad perspective.
October 29, 2008
worth reading for a theory on how this part of the united states has put its stamp on our civilization...
February 23, 2010
Lots about barbed wire. Different types of barbed wire. I recall Jennings saying he used a text for only three years.
October 26, 2009
I think I actually read it in a hardback edition from the school library.
Excellent telling, if I recall correctly, of barbed wire and "the real McCoy".
Excellent telling, if I recall correctly, of barbed wire and "the real McCoy".
September 21, 2011
Webb writes about the Great plains in the center of North America. Somewhat wordy and dull.
January 21, 2014
Great American Geography Story .... Riveting
November 25, 2018
The Classic Eco-history
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