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"What the difference a day makes", states the old song. I'd like to change that and point out that, "What a difference a great story teller makes".
Although its often frowned upon for the author of a history text to insert too much of him or herself into a work; if its done right, it can make the difference between a bland and a massively exciting work. Sharp, in his book "Whoop-Up Country" manages to do just this; although one can pick up his biases and opinions, they somehow make the work even more engaging than it otherwise would be. It hands a touch of humanity to the description of events.
And what events there are! Sharp happily veers into the territory of story telling on more than one occasion; some of the yarns he spin do well to illistrate the point he is trying to make. Others, one gets the opinion, he just wanted to put the story down on paper for the world to see. One of the ones which leaps up and grabs me as I write this is the one told about the Sheriff who was lynched for stealing money from drunks in a small town; he happily went off and got the rope for the mob, not understanding until it was to late that he was their intended target!
I spoke of biases earlier, and its easy to find Sharp's. He has a great deal of respect for the 'Mounties' and seems to generally favor the Canadian view of the plaines and their methods in comparison to the patterns laid out South of the border. This isn't to say that he doesn't find things to admire about the American West; the attention he gives to American lawmen points to his respect. However, in the end, his Canadianess wins out over his love of those colorful Americans; and one can tell that he certainly prefers the way things developed in his own nation over the course taken in the United States.
I actually learnt a great deal about the activities in the Whoop-Up Country; a region that, prior to opening this book, I have no knowledge of (a fact that is distressing when you realize that I lived with a Montanan who talked about her home state only a hair less than I've been known to rattle on about my beloved Wisconsin). It was interesting to see the divergent ways in which settlement occured in the United States and Canada; I agree with Sharp's thesis that the arrival of 'the law' before settlement had a major inpact upon the culture of the region.
One other interesting point of difference was the the divergence of Sharp's views from those of Webb. I can not remember the exact quote; but he on more than one occasion seemed to indicate that he found culture and types of government to have had a greater impact upon the people of the region than on mere adaption to the environment. In fact, by setting up the stories of the American Whoop-Up Country and its Canadian counterpart in opposition he effectively works to refute Webb's main point, whether he wished to do it or not; if environment was the sole motivation of life of the plaines, thn the American and Canadian settlements would have had nearly identicle histories and cultures.