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Weblog for HIST 431: The North American Plains

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

 

RP:Webb

In Walter Prescott Webb's book, The Great Plains, he talks about the environment of the Great Plains and the adaptation that is needed to survive in the plains. He centers his book around the plains in Texas and bases most of his information off those features.Webb begins his book by introducing what characteristics define the plains. The three characteristics are whether or not the area is level, semi-arid, and treeless. These three characteristics define the landscape and the area must meet at least 2 of these conditions in order to be included in the plains. Webb repeatedly comes back to these three ideas throughout the book and stresses the importance of our adaptation to environment. He talks about some to the many things that the new settlers much adapt to when coming to the plains, such as new guns suited for the plains, building techniques, barb-wire fences, and some new farming techniques, such as using the Ogallala Aquifer to irrigate their land. Webb often has a biased opinion about the plains mainly because he never traveled too far north of Texas. Although Webb was very repetitive on his thesis and his ways throughout the book, over all the book was quiet interesting to me since I am an agriculture major and have been very involved with agriculture for as long as I can remember.

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