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629 Pages·2022·14.272 MB·English
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The GreaT Plains Second Edition The GreaT Plains Second Edition Walter Prescott Webb Introduction by andrew r. Graybill Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University UniversiTy of nebraska Press——lincoln © 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska 1931, 1959 © Walter Prescott Webb. First paperback printing 1981. All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Webb, Walter Prescott, 1888– 1963, author. | Graybill, Andrew R., 1971– , writer of introduction. | William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies. Title: The Great Plains / Walter Prescott Webb; introduction by Andrew R. Graybill. Description: Second edition. | Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. | Originally published: 1931. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2021038331 isbn 9781496231338 (paperback) Subjects: lcsh: Great Plains— History. | Mississippi River Valley— History. | Frontier and pioneer life— Great Plains. | Great Plains— Environmental conditions. | Agriculture— Great Plains—H istory. | United States— Territorial expansion. Classification: lcc f591 .w35 2022 | ddc 978— dc23 lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021038331 Designed and set in Adobe Text Pro by Mikala R. Kolander. conTenTs Introduction ix Andrew R. Graybill Preface 3 I. Introduction 7 II. The Physical Basis of the Great Plains Environment 13 1. How the Great Plains Were Built 13 2. The Climate of the Great Plains 19 3. The Plant Life of the Great Plains 29 4. Animal Life on the Great Plains 35 III. The Plains Indians 47 1. Characteristics of the Plains Indians 48 2. The Spread and Use of the Horse among the Plains Indians 53 3. Horsemanship and Weapons 60 4. The Sign Language of the Plains Indians 68 iv. The Spanish Approach to the Great Plains 85 1. The Spanish Colonial System Unsuited to the Great Plains 87 2. The Spanish Explorers on the Plains: A Period of Success 94 3. The Spanish Colonial Period: The Beginning of Failure 112 v. The American Approach to the Great Plains 135 1. Exploring the Great Plains: Marking the Trails 136 2. Creating the Tradition of the “Great American Desert” 147 3. The Texas Approach to the Great Plains: The Texans Touch the Plains 154 4. The Great Plains Block the Expansion of the South 175 vi. The Cattle Kingdom 193 1. The Origin of the Kingdom 195 2. The Spread of the Kingdom 204 3. The Evolution of the Range and Ranch Cattle Industry, 1866– 1928 215 4. The Ways of Life on the Cattle Range 231 5. The Twin Spectacles of the Range: the Round-up and the Drive 244 vii. Transportation and Fencing 259 1. Railroads in the Great Plains 262 2. The Fence Problem 271 viii. The Search for Water in the Great Plains 311 1. The Available Supply of Moisture in the Great Plains 313 2. Well- Making and Windmills 325 3. Irrigation in the Great Plains 341 4. Dry Farming: Conservation of Soil Moisture 358 5. Some Vagaries of the Search for Water 367 ix. New Laws for Land and Water 375 1. Enlarging the Land Unit 377 2. The Development of the Land Law for the West 388 3. Development of the Western Water Laws 420 x. The Literature of the Great Plains and About the Great Plains 443 1. The Literature of the Frontier and the Cattle Kingdom 444 2. The Literature of the Farm 460 xi. The Mysteries of the Great Plains in American Life 475 1. What Immediate Effects Did the Great Plains Have Upon the Anglo- American? 476 2. Did Man Originate on the Plains or in the Forest? 480 3. Why Is the West Considered Spectacular and Romantic? 482 4. Why Was the West Considered Lawless? Was It Really Lawless or Did It Merely Appear Lawless? 486 5. Why Is the West Politically Radical? 492 6. What Has Been the Spiritual Effect of the American Adventure in the Great Plains on Women? 495 7. In Conclusion: Let Us Inquire What Has Been and What Is to Be the Meaning of the Great Plains in American Life 497 Notes 507 Bibliography 551 Index 561 inTrodUc Tion Andrew R. Graybill The first review of Walter Prescott Webb’s The Great Plains was damning, and Webb himself was partly to blame. Upon the book’s release in the summer of 1931, Webb sent a copy to a friend who wrote for multiple Texas newspapers, hoping that readers in his native Lone Star State would take notice. Instead the critic dis- missed the book as based on secondary sources and devoid of fresh observations.1 But Webb’s surprise and irritation abated that fall when the New York Times ran a glowing assessment on the front page of its Sunday books section, hailing his study as “one of the most original and significant contributions that has been made at any time to the history of the American West.” The illustration that accompanied the essay—N . C. Wyeth’s painting The Opening of the Prairies, which depicts a Native American man offering guidance to a caravan of white pioneers—p erfectly captured the central theme of Webb’s book: the nineteenth- century Anglo- American conquest of the nation’s midsection.2 The academic community saluted Webb’s achievement, too. Henry Steele Commager, then emerging as one of the brightest young stars in the history profession, argued that the book’s region- al focus should not obscure its broader importance, insisting that “both its technique and its conclusions should find application to the whole field of American history.”3 Webb won second place in

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