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This book Walter P. Webb's The Great Plains is a book about environmental determinism. Webb said, "The purpose of this book is to show how this area, with its three dominant characteristics, affected the various people, nations as well as individuals, who came to occupy it, and was also affected by them;…" I believe that he did show this well in this book; however there were still flaws within the book.

In his book Webb talks about the three dominant characteristics of the Great Plains. These three characteristics are that of a level surface, being timber-less, and having a semi-arid climate. These three characteristics describe the plains well however, I believe that the map in the beginning of Webb’s book includes too many areas into the Great Plains Region.

In this book Webb also shows an interesting point about the Indian sign language. This was interesting how the Indians used these signs not only to communicate across the language barrier, but also to stay in communication with each other when they needed to be silent to gain the advantage in different situations, such as hunting or while at war. Webb seems to take his points about the Indian people to the extent of almost dividing the plains Indians, as superior, from other Indian peoples.

Webb also makes interesting points about the Spanish approach to the Great Plains from the south and how they even helped turn various Indian tribes against each other at some points to gain further advantage in the South West. The Spanish advance in the South West gave rise to the use of horses more extensively for transportation, hunting, and warfare.

Towards the end of the book Webb explains the importance of water on the plains: such as drinking water, washing water, and also for irrigation of the land to grow crops for commerce.

This book was very relevant to the class overall and should not be overlooked as a very viable source of information when studying the Great Plains.