The Great Plains - 2nd Edition by Walter Prescott Webb (Paperback)

About the Book

Walter Prescott Webb identifies the revolver, barbed wire, and the windmill as technological adaptations that facilitated Anglo conquest of the arid, treeless region of the Great Plains.

Book Synopsis

Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University

This iconic description of the interaction between the vast central plains of the continent and the white Americans who moved there in the mid-nineteenth century has endured as one of the most influential, widely known, and controversial works in western history since its first publication in 1931. 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," Walter Prescott Webb identifies the revolver, barbed wire, and the windmill as technological adaptations that facilitated Anglo conquest of the arid, treeless region. Webb draws on history, anthropology, geography, demographics, climatology, and economics in arguing that the 98th Meridian constitutes an institutional fault line at which "practically every institution that was carried across it was either broken and remade or else greatly altered."

This new edition of one of the foundational works of western American history features an introduction by Great Plains historian Andrew R. Graybill and a new index and updated design.

Review Quotes

"Webb's The Great Plains is worth reading and contemplating. Andrew R. Graybill, director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwestern Studies at Southern Methodist University, provides an insightful introduction to this second edition. . . . The Great Plains remains essential reading for any historian of the region and the American West. Students and scholars who ignore it do so at their own intellectual peril."--R. Douglas Hurt, H-Environment

"The Great Plains is not simply a celebration of settlers overcoming obstacles, but also a rendering of the devil's bargains that went into establishing only partial and often impermanent solutions amid relentless aridity. Readers can choose to find the humility in that kind of history, and the lessons that come with it have only grown more relevant with time."--Mark Boxell, Nebraska History

"Walter Webb's The Great Plains wrenched our understanding of the West--and through that, of American history--onto a strikingly new course. Engaging and fluently written, it remains largely as pertinent today as when it appeared nearly a century ago. Andrew Graybill's smart and balanced introduction is the ideal guide to how we can begin to learn from both the insights and the flaws of this American classic."--Elliott West, Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas

About the Author

Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963) was among the most important and influential historians of the American West. He spent his career at the University of Texas and enjoyed visiting appointments in London and Oxford. Webb was the author of a number of highly provocative books, including The Texas Rangers and The Great Frontier. Andrew R. Graybill is a professor of history and director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University. He is the author or editor of four books, including Policing the Great Plains: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875-1910 (Nebraska, 2007).