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Walter P. Webb’s book, The Great Plains, is based around a theory that Webb himself based his work on. The idea that adaptation to environment is needed to survive and tame that environment. Webb first lays the ground work of the environment in the opening chapter. He points out the character of the landscape and the adaptation of the animals that thrive there. These adaptations of animals lay the ground work for his theory. Webb then dives into different groups on the plains describing the Native Americans as noble savages, the Spanish as explores looking for riches, and the European white man as the conqueror or tamer of the plains. Webb points to many different instances where adaptation was needed for the peoples to thrive on the plains. Webb focuses on the horse as a means for travel over a longer distance, the use of hand signals to communicate over long distances, the creation of barbwire to contain cattle in place that is without timber for fences, and the introduction of the six-shooter to defeat the “savages”. According to Webb, these were all tools created for or adapted to the Great Plains so peoples could strive and grow.
I have a hard time reading this book because I just want to pick apart Webb. Webb as many historians do put his own spin on what happened on the plains. He seems to glorify certain images in his book while putting others down. How he talks about the horse, the six-shooter, and the barbwire fence for example. Webb really glorifies their uses maybe, because they are all images of his heroes, the cowboys. It makes reading this tough because he interjects his opinions of how the plains were and not my own. The biggest thing I have learned from this book is that history can be subjective.