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When I first started in on Walter Webb's text The Great Plains, I had mixed feelings. I really didn't know what to expect. It was interesting to see the plains from Webb's points of view. I could definitely see a difference in the way he saw the plains from people in the northern states see it. I can't help but think that is because of location and the events that happened in the two different areas during history.
The way Webb aligned the chapters of the book from the landscape to the explorers and finally to the settlement really helped keep the book moving smoothly. Webb first explained the controversy of where the line of the start of the Great Plains was at. He then went on to explain the ways of the plains Indians which helped the reader understand what the Spanish explorers felt when they first encountered the Indians. He viewed the Indians as savages, but at the same time he was captured by the way they showed their savagery. He explained them as being the true horseman of the plains.
In the chapters explaining the first expeditions across the plains was where I truly saw his difference in views of past explorers. He came off as not caring for the first American explorers, Lewis & Clark. He saw them as illiterate and not fit for the task. Webb felt the later American explorers were much more precise and attentive to detail in their writing of the expedition. He vividly portrayed the sequence of events that led up to the later settling of the plains.
Perhaps the greatest realization from the book was how he felt about Lewis & Clark's expedition. I being from the area that Lewis & Clark traveled through has blinded me in showing the value of their expedition. It is easy to get caught up in the fame and fortune of being from that area they traveled through, and forget to see the fact that other expeditions had possibly far more impact on the settling of the Great Plains.