First published in 1951, The Great Frontier has become one of the undisputed classics of Western history, its conclusions still hotly debated by scholars but nonetheless essential and engrossing reading for anyone who wishes to understand the history and significance of this vast and often puzzling region. The final work of pioneer Western historian Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Frontier represents a daring attempt to interpret the settlement of the American West in the global context of the expansion of European civilization between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. According to Webb's "boom hypothesis," the expansion of Europe's "Great Frontier" into the Western Hemisphere energized a static society and made possible the development of such fundamental institutions of the modern era as individualism capitalism, and political democracy. Webb contends that the closing of the global frontier at the end of the nineteenth century, with the end of easily available empty land and readily exploited natural resources, was responsible for the crises and violence of the twentieth century and boded ill for the future of the United States's treasured democracy. An insightful new introduction by Western historian William D. Rowley sets Webb's masterwork into the context of its own time and outlines the relevance of this still-controversial work for twenty-first-century readers.

Great Frontier

History

Webb, Walter Prescott

World

The University of Texas Press

Webb's classic history of the Texas Rangers has been popular ever since its first publication in 1935. This edition is a reproduction of the original Houghton Mifflin edition.

The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense

Americas

University of Texas Press

Texas Rangers

Reprint Services Corp

This classic description of the interaction between the vast central plains of America and the people who lived there has, since its first publication in 1931, been one of the most influential, widely known, and controversial works in western history. Arguing that "the Great Plains environment. . .constitutes a geographic unity whose influences have been so powerful as to put a characteristic mark upon everything that survives within its borders," Webb singles out the revolver, barbed wire, and the windmill as evidence of the new phase of civilization required for settlement of that arid, treeless region. Webb draws on history, anthropology, geography, demographics, climatology, and economics to substantiate his thesis that the 98th meridian constituted an institutional fault—comparable to a geological fault—at which "practically every institution that was carried across it was either broken and remade or else greatly altered."

The Great Plains

University Of Nebraska Press

First published in 1951, The Great Frontier has become one of the undisputed classics of Western history, its conclusions still hotly debated by scholars but nonetheless essential and engrossing reading for anyone who wishes to understand the history and significance of this vast and often puzzling region. The final work of pioneer Western historian Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Frontier represents a daring attempt to interpret the settlement of the American West in the global context of the expansion of European civilization between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. According to Webb's "boom hypothesis," the expansion of Europe's "Great Frontier" into the Western Hemisphere energized a static society and made possible the development of such fundamental institutions of the modern era as individualism capitalism, and political democracy. Webb contends that the closing of the global frontier at the end of the nineteenth century, with the end of easily available empty land and readily exploited natural resources, was responsible for the crises and violence of the twentieth century and boded ill for the future of the United States's treasured democracy. An insightful new introduction by Western historian William D. Rowley sets Webb's masterwork into the context of its own time and outlines the relevance of this still-controversial work for twenty-first-century readers.

The Great Frontier

Univ of Nebraska Pr

Walter Prescott Webb (1888–1963), a towering figure in Texas and western history and letters, published an abundance of books—but for decades the autobiography he’d written late in life sat largely undisturbed among his papers. Webb’s remarkable story appears here in print for the first time, edited and annotated by Michael Collins, an authority on Texas history. This firsthand account offers readers a window on the life, the work, and the world of one of the most interesting thinkers in the history, and historiography, of Texas.\nWebb’s narrative carries us from the drought-scarred rim of West Texas known as the Cross Timbers, to the hardscrabble farm life that formed him, to the bright lights of Austin and the University of Texas, where he truly came of age. Fascinating for the picture it summons of the Texas of his youth and the intellectual landscape of his career, Webb’s autobiography also offers intriguing insights into the way his epic work, The Great Plains, evolved. He also describes the struggle behind his groundbreaking history of that storied frontier fighting force the Texas Rangers. Along the way, Webb reflects on the nature of historical research, the role that Texas and the West have played in American history, the importance of education, and the place of universities in our national culture.\nMore than a rare encounter with a true American character’s life and thought, A Texan’s Story is also a uniquely enlightening look into the understanding, writing, and teaching of western American history in its formative years.

A Texan's Story: The Autobiography of Walter Prescott Webb

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

University of Oklahoma Press

Handbook of Texas

Carroll, H. Bailey

Texas State Historical Assn

The Texas Rangers in the Mexican War

J. Garrett Press

In The Texas Rangers, published by UT Press in 1965, Walter Prescott Webb told the story of this unique law enforcement agency as no one else could. Forsaking the historian's ivory tower, Webb rode with the Rangers in the days when desperate, greedy men thought the border between Texas and Mexico was an open gate to bootleggers. He loved the harsh country through which the Rangers rode, and he loved the tempering of the steel within the Rangers that came from a life short on comfort and long on danger. The Texas Rangers grew out of the stories Webb heard around Ranger campfires at night, as the men drank coffee and swapped tales of their adventures. In this audiobook, popular Texas folk singer Steve Fromholz brings to life the very best of those stories. Two tapes offer nearly two hours of listening pleasure. The book was abridged by Turk Pipkin.

The Texas Rangers: Audiocassette

Originally published: New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1957.

The Story of the Texas Rangers

Literary Licensing, LLC

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Webb, Walter Prescott. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Webb, Walter Prescott