Study Guide for Walter P. Webb, The Great Plains

Webb, Walter Prescott. The Great Plains. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1931. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 0-8032-9702-5.

This page presents comments and study questions for each chapter of the work. This is a rich text, which can be read on several levels, and so don't confine your reactions and reflections to my selection of study questions! If you are reading thoughtfully, you will generate your own ideas. Also, remember that concepts are more important than factual detail. The facts are evidence. The point of the book is its argument. For the crux of that argument, see my page on the Webb Thesis.

Speaking globally, there are two main things I want you to get from reading Webb.

1. Understand his main thesis, adaptation to environment, and how it is developed through a series of case studies.

2. Understand how a master historian such as Webb works, the strengths as well as the weaknesses. Webb believes in the great idea, which provides the analytic foundation for the book. The scheme of the book therefore is expository in structure. Nevertheless, Webb is a great story-teller, and so within the expository structure are strong narrative elements.

Great Plains Crossword Here!

Chapter	Comments	Questions
Preface	Always read the preface, where the author tells how the book came to be and reveals the point of view and thesis. Note how Webb's thesis, laid out in this chapter, fits with the material in Lecture 1 and is the basis for one point in the four-point interpretive model.	1. How did this book come to be? Where did the idea come from? 2. What is the thesis of the book?
1. Introduction	Here Webb sets about defining and delimiting the region that is his subject. His fuzzy definitions are expansive and subject to easy criticism. Consider this chapter especially in relation to Lecture 2.	1. What are the "three distinguishing characteristics" of the Great Plains? What type of criteria are these? 2. What area constitutes the heart of the Great Plains? What plains-like areas lie to the east and west of this heart? 3. How does Webb's restatement of his thesis on p. 8 embody the concept of environmental determinism?
2. The Physical Basis of the Great Plains Environment	This chapter is devoted to the geology, climate, plants, and animals of the plains. The sources for the chapter are thin; Webb is selecting material to lay ground for his thesis. This chapter also is important for its relation to Lecture 2.	1. Why study the physiography (physical geography) of the Great Plains? 2. How were the Great Plains formed? How have they been altered—by what forces? How do you explain the persistence of the High Plains? 3. What climatic features characterize the Great Plains? Which one is key?
3. The Plains Indians	It's important to remember the publication date of the book, 1931, when you read this chapter. The base of archeological knowledge at the time was quite thin. Moreover, the first generation of anthropological work on Plains Indians had strong biases. Nevertheless, Webb works methodically through this material, locating evidence that will support his great thesis. Some of the rhetoric here is a little disturbing. Webb begins with calling Indians "the connecting link" between "nature" and "civilization." Indians, this says, were barbarians. Then there is his justification of the study of Indians on the basis that they influenced white settlement—implying that Indians were in no way important for their own sake. Again, consider the times, and recognize, on the other hand, the strength of Webb's argument at the core. Obviously, this chapter goes with Lecture 4, which uses Webb's chapter as a basis for discussion.	1. Consider these two quotes on p. 48. "The Plains Indians constituted for a much longer time than we realize the most effectual barrier ever set up by a native American population against European invaders in a temperate zone." "Their country, like Russia in the time of invasion, fought for them." What can we extract from these quotes about both the limitations and the breadth of Webb's point of view? 2. What "significant facts" constituted "Plains Indian culture"? 3. What was the condition of the Plains Indians before the horse, according to Webb? 4. What were the Old-World antecedents of the horse culture of the plains? That is, which of the two horse traditions of Europe fostered that of the plains? And why does Webb care about this? 5. How may we say that horse and dog culture typify the "cultural unity" of the plains? 6. Why were the Plains Indians such formidable fighters? What Indians, says Webb, excelled all others at horsemanship? 7. What was the origin of sign language as a characteristic aspect of plains culture? Note the standard interpretation, and then Webb's. 8. This chapter is a good place to pause and think about how Webb proceeds, what kind of History he is doing, how he thinks and writes. First, consider narrative, description, and exposition. Which is the predominate class of writing in this chapter and this book? Second, consider the manner of reasoning, that is, inductive v. deductive. Which is Webb doing?
4. The Spanish Approach to the Great Plains	Here we find Webb drawing on a new field of study in North American history, one associated with the work of fellow historian Herbert Eugene Bolton—the Spanish Borderlands. The Borderlands historians highlighted the Spanish role in the colonization of the New World and the extension of the Spanish empire into what was to become the United States. Webb takes this line of work and, as always, reinterprets it to use it for his own purpose. He portrays the Spanish as great explorers of the plains, but poor colonizers of them. Consider this chapter in relation to Lecture 3.	1. According to Webb, what were the two basic reasons that the Spanish avoided or failed on the plains? 2. What institutions were designed for the frontier development of the Spanish new world? How were they unsuited when they encountered the plains and its people? 3. Evaluate the significance of the Coronado expedition. What did it bode for potential Spanish colonization of the plains? 4. What did the early Spanish explorers conclude as to the merits of the Great Plains as a country? 5. Why were the Plains Indians an insuperable barrier to the Spanish? 6. Hey, how come Webb doesn't have a chapter on "The French Approach to the Great Plains"?
5. The American Approach to the Great Plains	Webb later claimed that when he wrote Great Plains, he had not read Turner. Reviewing pp. 140-41 in Webb, I conclude he was blowing smoke when he made that claim. Clearly, here he is echoing Turner's famous "Stand at Cumberland Gap" passage. Webb continues in this chapter to select known material and reinterpret it to fit his big thesis. Most of us, when we think of Webb, think in terms of his homely details of pioneer life—sod houses, barbed wire, and so on. This chapter reminds us that Webb was concerned at heart with political economy, with broad issues of control of land and wealth. He sees the Great Plains environment as directing the grand course of American history, making some remarkable claims in this regard. In this chapter once again we see Webb's Texas roots. Much of what he says about the American approach to the plains is, in fact, the Texas approach. He wrote about what he knew about. That leaves it for us to consider the applicability of his ideas in other reaches of the plains. The early part of this chapter goes with Lecture 3.	1. What did Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Long each contribute to the American conception of the Great Plains? 2. What effect did the Great Plains have on the course of westward migration? (See passages about the frontier "jumping nearly 2000 miles over an unoccupied country" beginning p. 149.) 3. What's the point of Webb's long-winded story of the six-shooter in his section on Texas here? 4. The Franco-Texienne Company is a new story to most of us, and it seems of little consequence. Why do you think Webb included it? Can you think of parallels elsewhere in the world of a nation settling immigrant peoples on its grassland frontier for strategic purpose? 5. How does Webb interpret the sectional crisis of the 1850s in the light of the Great Plains environment?
6. The Cattle Kingdom	Here is where Webb really rocks and rolls. First he mourns how the cattle industry of the West has been obscured by fluffy romance, and then he presents us with as romantic a view of ranching as can be found in letters! He's got a purple stop under his typewriter, and here and there in this chapter he pulls it out all the way. Once again Webb is centered on the southern plains; we'll have to fill in for him for developments up north. This chapter sounds like perfectly innocent Western Americana, just good Wild West stuff—but I would argue that it has strong implications for power and policy. In at least two ways people look to this chapter for environmental lessons from history. This chapter goes with the early part of Lecture 6.	1. What were the ethnic and geographic origins of the open-range cattle-raising system? Where did it come from? 2. What were the reasons for and results of the long drive? 3. Why does Webb call the open range cattle-raising system a "natural" system for the plains? 4. How was this system spread to the northern reaches of the plains? What was the cultural impact of this extension? 5. What distinctive tools and institutions characterized the cattle kingdom on the plains? 6. What forces brought about the cattle boom of the 1870s and 1880s? What forces wrought the destruction of the cattle kingdom? 7. What lessons are we supposed to take from all this?
7. Transportation and Fencing	At first it seems a little puzzling why Webb puts railroads and fencing together in one chapter, until you realize that both steel rails and barbed wire are manifestations of the industrial revolution applied to life on the plains; the East supplied technology to the West. The first part of this chapter goes with Lecture 5, and the second part goes with Lecture 7.	1. What Northern development made possible the settlement of the Great Plains? 2. How was railroad construction on the plains different from back east? 3. Why did the government subsidize railroads in the West? What were the fencing customs of the eastern United States? Why did they fail on the plains? 4. What was the place of hedges in solving the fencing problem of the plains? 5. How was barbed wire developed? Why was it the fence of the plains?
8. The Search for Water	The most important of Webb's physiographic criteria for defining the plains is semiaridity, and so his consideration of water technologies and water institutions on the plains is crucial to his argument. This chapter goes with both Lecture 6 and Lecture 7.	1. What is "the crux of the whole problem of conquering the Great Plains"? 2. What are ways of supplementing annual rainfall for agriculture on the plains? 3. What were the sources of water for irrigation—advantages and disadvantages of each? 4. What innovations of technology made it possible to exploit the ground water of the plains? What were the uses of windmills, then and now? 5. What is the potential, and what are the problems Webb sees for irrigation on the plains? 6. How does dry farming work? What are the dangers in it? 7. What folk beliefs supported hopes of increased rainfall?
9. New Laws for Land and Water	This chapter moves the discussion of adaptation to semiaridity into the realm of law—land law and water law. The chapter applies particularly to Lecture 7.	1. What is the general trend in size of agricultural land units on the plains? Why? What attendant changes do larger land units imply? 2. What does Webb consider the ideal land unit, or agricultural system, for the plains? How does this relate to farm size? 3. How have federal land laws related to the size of farms on the plains? 4. What did Powell propose for the region in 1878? 5. What was English common law in relation to water rights? 6. How has this been modified in the West?
10. The Literature of the Great Plains and About the Great Plains	This is a troublesome chapter, for a couple of reasons. The first is that it is not exactly well grounded. Webb himself considers the literature of the plains rather rudimentary as of his time of writing, and what there is, well, I'm not sure he read Cather (by far the most important novelist) closely! The second troublesome matter is that this chapter seems to divide the plains, whereas most of the book posits a cultural unity in the region. Material in this chapter does not correlate with any particular lecture, but is important in its own right.	1. What are the characteristics of literature of the frontier, according to Webb? And how might the Great Plains frontier be different in this regard? 2. What branch of literature is "beyond dispute the distinctive and peculiar contribution" of the plains? And what types of literature constitute this branch? 3. How does the literature of farm contrast to the literature of ranch? Can you put in your own words the distinction Webb makes between the literature of the Far Country and that of the Near Country?
11. The Mysteries of the Great Plains in American Life	This is a really weird chapter, so just relax and enjoy it. Most of it comprises half-baked speculation about a variety of subjects Webb just couldn't resist commenting on, even though he had no particular evidence to draw upon. It's a source of interesting theories for discussion. Note this statement in the last section: "The innovations of the Great Plains are more remarkable than the survivals." Be prepared to put this point of view into your own words. The only material in this chapter that correlates with a particular lecture is that on radical politics, which goes with Lecture 12, but it's all interesting in its own right.	1. What was the emotional effect of the plains on newcomers? What do you make of this metaphor of the plains as the sea? 2. What might the origins of humankind have to do with visceral reactions to the Great Plains landscape? 3. Are the Great Plains a place of romance? Are they lawless? 4. What are the causes of political radicalism on the plains? 5. Do you buy what Webb has to say about women on the plains?

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