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So far Webb has made real good use of summary,which makes it easy form me to read and high light. one good example I have at my hands is from page 20, "The effective precipitation is only the actual precipitation minus the evaporation and the run-off." Short phrases like that make it easy to remember what Webb is trying to say even if he gets a little bit on the repetitive side.

About repetition, that is part of making a good case for your historical argument. As Clair Strom would advise, you should be beating me over the head with your thesis, ever paragraph should be brought back, or related to your thesis. I think that is the way historians ought to be making their case since the human experience is so complex and many, seemingly disparate factors, can actually be coming together in a manner never fully examined before. I wonder if this is not what Webb was felling as he wrote this book.

I need to mention one final thing as a warning, and it is off topic to be sure. On page 89 he talks about how Spain conquered the new world and he states,"For conquest, there was the conquistador, or the campaigning general with an army at his back." Just so you know Webb is citing popular myth and this claim has been refuted several times, I recommend seven myths of the Spanish conquest or intro to Latin American history with Norris. History and story telling is fine but to me fiction does no belong in a work of history and I understand this book was written some time ago, so I will concede that.

I will be publishing my thoughts on the lecture soon.