Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions: Public Recognition Of Sexual Diversity In Canada And The United States By David Rayside, Karen Busby

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Queer Inclusions is a fascinating and well-written comparative examination of the politics of sexual diversity in Canada and the United States. David Rayside focuses on how political and legal issues affecting gay and lesbian relationship recognition, parenting, and schooling have played out in these two countries over the last decade. The author, who is not a lawyer, does an excellent job reviewing law reform processes and outcomes in an accurate yet not overly technical manner. His reliance on a variety of methodological techniques makes for a solid, well-tested analysis. In particular, I found his comparative analyses on the influence of …

Book Review: A Biomass Future For The North American Great Plains: Toward Sustainable Land Use And Mitigation Of Greenhouse Warming By Norman J. Rosenberg, Steven L. Fales

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This book presents a comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and timely treatment of the topic. Interpretive summaries at the end of each chapter emphasize salient points and are very helpful to the reader. Illustrations (including color plates in end materials) are useful, but a number have poor resolution, making them difficult to interpret. The book is appropriate for upper-level students and other individuals interested in sustainable agriculture, agroecology, bioenergy, and related topics.

Book Review: Embracing Watershed Politics By Edella Schlager And William Blomquist, Sandra K. Davis

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The analysis presented in each chapter is focused on concepts that are examined and applied in a case study to explain the existing system of governance. Although the concepts are not integrated into a framework, the authors’ careful use of concepts provides insights into watershed decision making. Just as concepts are not integrated into a grand framework, there is no prescription for the best type of governance. This may disappoint those seeking the answer to watershed governance, but the book provides realistic analyses of the complex management problems of watersheds. Perhaps in the future, additional research will more definitely link …

Book Review: Grasses Of Colorado By Robert B. Shaw, Stephan L. Hatch

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This comprehensive, systematic treatment of the grasses of Colorado is going to become the standard for new floras in the state. With this book the “student of grasses” will be able to more accurately identify and key the species within this economically important and unique family. Users will need to read the introductions and follow the author’s excellent instructions in how to use the book to be most successful. There are brief but adequate discussions of physiography and ecoregions that place Colorado’s grass vegetation in the proper context with surrounding states. The section on the “grass plant” is particularly well …

Book Review: Saskatchewan: Geographic Perspectives Edited By Bernard D. Thraves, M.L. Lewry, Janis E. Dale, And Hansgeorg Schlichtmann, Tom Carter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

If the book has a weakness, it is the absence of a strong focus on social geography. Various chapters bring social issues into the discussion, but there is no detailed attention to poverty, health, housing, education, and other aspects of social geography. That aside, this collection offers an excellent portrayal of the geography of Saskatchewan. It will be an invaluable resource for years to come, offering a choice vantage point from which to engage future geographical perspectives on Saskatchewan.

Book Review: Books On Trial: Red Scare In The Heartland By Shirley A. Weigand And Wayne A. Weigand, Ahmed A. White

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The subject of Shirley and Wayne Weigand’s Books on Trial is the prosecution of several Community Party members and their friends by authorities in Oklahoma City. The prosecutions, which began in 1940, entailed charges of “criminal syndicalism” based largely on the defendants’ connection to a Party-sponsored bookstore. Books on Trial recounts in detail the clumsy raids on the bookstore that set the prosecutions in motion; the rough treatment visited on the defendants by local authorities and citizens; the series of rigged trials resulting in the proprietor, his wife, and several others being convicted and sentenced to ten-year terms in prison …

Mapping Agricultural Land Cover For Hydrologic Modeling In The Platte River Watershed Of Nebraska, Patti R. Dappen, Ian C. Ratcliffe, Cullen R. Robbins, James W. Merchant

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Throughout the western United States, natural resources managers are attempting to address the growing, and often competing, demands that municipal, agricultural and environmental interests have for water. The Platte River Cooperative Hydrology Study (COHYST) is a multi-agency effort that seeks to improve understanding of the ecology, geology, and hydrology of the Platte River watershed in central and western Nebraska. Information regarding the types, areal extent, and locations of crops (especially irrigated crops) is critical for estimating consumptive use of water. Digital land-cover and land-use datasets of the central and western Platte River valley have been prepared for four years: 1982, …

Review Of Doing Science And Doing Good: A History Of The Bureau Of Child Research And The Schiefelbusch Institute For Life Span Studies At The University Of Kansas. Edited By Richard L. Schiefelbusch And Stephen R. Schroeder., Warren J. White

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Stating "I grow weary knowing about the yearly increase in appropriations for research on the care and feeding of livestock knowing that we appropriate nothing for research on the care and nurture of children," Dr. Florence Brown Sherbon in 1921 convinced the Kansas Legislature to pass a statute forming the Bureau of Child Research (BCR). From that beginning grew one of the most remarkable research centers in the United States focusing on children with mental retardation. Doing Science and Doing Good tells the story of how a small group of visionary researchers and administrators at the University of Kansas and …

Review Of Genetically Engineered Crops: Interim Policies, Uncertain Legislation. Edited By Lain E.P. Taylor, Rene C. Van Acker

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Taylor has compiled a range of informed perspectives on ways to advance the regulation of GE crops, with examples from around the world. M. Korthals argues in chapter 6 for mechanisms that would allow for a coevolution of society and GE development, since the broadest benefits from GE crops, he holds, can only be realized if the fundamental basis for their regulations resides in societal participation. Tn chapter 7, Taylor echoes this call and asks what traits society might seek in GE crops and to what extent social desires would differ from the agroindustrial traits currently available or being developed. …

Producer Responses To Carbon Sequestration Incentives In The Northern Great Plains, Dean A. Bangsund, F. Larry Leistritz

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Agricultural lands can be used as a terrestrial sink for atmospheric CO₂ by changing their management and/or use. The goal of this study was to evaluate the economic potential of carbon sequestration on cropland in the spring wheat producing region of the northern Great Plains. In order to provide a more realistic assessment of the economic potential for agricultural carbon sequestration, this study reflects regional trends in land management practices, incorporates the value of co-products from the conversion of cropland to permanent grass, and considers producer differences in crop production profitability. The economic model compared the expected net present …

Moving To The Rural Great Plains: Point Of Origin Differences In The Decision-Making Process, Randolph L. Cantrell, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bruce B. Johnson, Charlotte Narjes, Rebecca J. Vogt

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Census data demonstrate that the movement of population in the rural Great Plains is not one-way. People do indeed move into as well as out of the region. Past research has identified perceptions of the quality of life in rural areas as an important consideration in the decision to migrate to such areas. However, those studies have not segmented the population of migrants in such a way as to fully inform efforts to recruit new residents. Using data collected from a survey of new Nebraska Panhandle residents, this study describes the motivations of recent migrants from both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan …

Book Review: Natives And Settlers Now And Then: Historical Issues And Current Perspectives On Treaties And Land Claims In Canada Edited By Paul W. Depasquale, Michael Cottrell

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Natives and Settlers Now and Then is a slim volume that will be of great interest to scholars of Indigenous Studies and Native-Newcomer relations. Its primary focus is on the Canadian Great Plains, but it also touches on broader Indigenous issues in the United States and New Zealand. Edited by Paul W. DePasquale, the collection contains five essays based on presentations delivered by academic scholars, activists, and legal experts at a conference of the same name held at the University of Alberta in 2000. Its organizers sought to place "Natives and Native issues at the centre of the event," and …

Book Review: Farming In A Changing Climate: Agricultural Adaptation In Canada Edited By Ellen Wall, Barry Smit, And Johanna Wandel, Debra Davidson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This timely collection will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, and agriculturalists throughout North America and beyond. It offers both a comprehensive collection of recent research on the vulnerability of Canadian farming systems to climate change and a thorough and articulate presentation of the breadth of concepts and methods currently employed in climate change vulnerability assessments. The volume is information-dense in places, but necessarily so, given its broad thesis. Despite the breadth of content, the editors provide a balanced and coherent message, with individual chapters presenting varied but complementary contributions, organized in terms of three methodological approaches: impact based, context …

News And Notes

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Charles E. Bessey Award

Leslie Hewes Award

Symposium Announcement

Review Of Native Americans And The Environment: Perspectives On The Ecological Indian. By Michael E. Harkin And David Rich Lewis, Paula Wagoner

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Native Americans and the Environment is arranged in five parts: "Shepard Krech and His Critics," with essays by Krech and others; "(Over)hunting Large Game"; "Representations of Indians and Animals"; "Traditional Ecological Knowledge"; and "Contemporary Resource Management Issues." Each essay provides useful information on American Indians and the environment, demonstrating the complexity that Krech alludes to in the first chapter in which he discusses the debate his book triggered and welcomes the wealth of discussion it has generated. He argues that the mask of the ecological Indian mystifies complexity, as does generalizing about "the" Indian anything. The rich essays that follow …

Literature Review Of Mule Deer And White-Tailed Deer Movements In Western And Midwestern Landscapes, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Scott R. Groepper, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Chuck J. Frost, Justin R. Boner, Travis C. Kinsell, Gregory M. Clements

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The relationships among seasonal change, population dynamics, social pressures, landscape dynamics, anthropologic disturbances, and behavioral ecology are complex. Therefore, migration and seasonal movements are poorly understood and dispersal continues to be one of the least understood aspects of animal ecology in North America. We reviewed scientific literature on movements of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) in western and midwestern landscapes to identify gaps in our knowledge and direct future research. We used electronic databases, library catalogs, Internet search engines, and peer-reviewed journals to conduct key word searches for pertinent articles. We found …

Book Review: The Liberals' Moment: The Mcgovern Insurgency And The Identity Crisis Of The Democratic Party By Bruce Miroff, William D. Anderson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Bruce Miroff's The Liberals' Moment uses rich historical research and a trove of interviews with nearly 50 McGovern campaign staffers and activists to argue similarly that the campaigns of 1968 and particularly 1972 shaped the Republican Party's resurgence in American politics. Miroff's rationale for why this is so is entirely different, however: South Dakota Senator George McGovern's 1972 presidential election defeat exposed an ideologically fractured Democratic Party that, nearly 40 years later, is still struggling to find its identity.

Miroff supports his argument by carefully documenting McGovern's campaign and the efforts of his staff of upstart politicos that included Gary …

Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, 1819-1820: America's First Biodiversity Ineventory, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

It is our thesis that members of the Stephen Long Expedition of 1819-20 completed the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States at their winter quarters, Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, in the modern state of Nebraska. This accomplishment has been overlooked both by biologists and historians, but it should rank among the most significant accomplishments of the expedition. The results of this inventory allow us to evaluate the environmental, faunal, and floral changes along the Missouri River in the intervening nearly 190 years. The historical records form a visual image of a dynamic riverine system in which a highly …

Review Of Inconstant Companions: Archaeology And North American Indian Oral Traditions. By Ronald J. Mason, Rodger Echo-Hawk

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Science and scholarship are valuable academic endeavors because they offer a transcendent perspective on human doings. In other words, these modes of inquiry establish a kind of common ground that crosses cultural boundaries. If any common ground exists among varying culture-specific oral traditions, and if any shared truths exist between the study of oral traditions and archaeological inquiry, conscientious scholarship ought to look for them. Inconstant Companions offers no help to those scholars who want to know whether oral tradition and archaeology can conjointly shed light on ancient human history. Clearly, Mason wants us to accept his position that this …

Review Of Predator Upon A Flower: Life History And Fitness In A Crab Spider. By Douglass H. Morse, Hank Guarisco

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This masterfully written, 377-page book is a product of the author's 25 years of detailed natural history studies of a commonly encountered crab spider (Misumena vatia) which frequents prairies and old fields in the United States, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is a delight to read because of the author's flowing narrative style and his adeptness in placing his fascinating natural history observations of this consummate sit-and-wait predator within the broader contexts of foraging theory, reproductive biology, learning behavior, resource allocation, and, ultimately, lifetime fitness.

Review Of Roots Of Change: Nebraska's New Agriculture. By Mary Ridder., James Peterson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Roots of Change provides compelling evidence of the opportunities this new agriculture offers and its effects on communities. Twenty-seven examples are cited outlining successful- and unsuccessful-cooperative ventures developed to add value to the agricultural economy thereby, helping farm families and the communities they live in. Where successful, farm families no longer compete with each other for declining land resources and are actually working together for the benefit of themselves and their communities.

Assessment Of Conservation Reserve Program Fields Within The Current Distribution Of Lesser Prairie-Chicken, Dana Ripper, Megan Mclachlan, Theodore Toombs, Tammy Vercauteren

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Populations of lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) have declined by more than 90%, due primarily to the conversion of sand-sage and mixed-grass prairie to agriculture, overgrazing by domestic livestock, juniper encroachment, and fossil-fuel development. Degradation of native habitats has made restored cropland through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) potentially one ofthe best management options for lesser prairie-chicken. An estimated 1.4 million hectares of CRP exist within the lesser prairie-chicken range. We assessed 1,019 CRP fields representing more than 51,000 hectares within the current distribution of the lesser prairie-chicken. We sampled various grassland plantings including Farm Service Agency conservation practices …

Book Review: Water From Stone: The Story Of Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve By Jeffrey Greene., Louis L. Jacobs

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

That place is David Bamberger's hope and vision, his challenge, his Malabar Farm writ large. This book is about him and the restoration of Selah as his commitment to the world and to the people with him on his quest. Selah, like Walden Pond, is a place to pause and reflect, which is the meaning of the word. But however much David may be a pause-and-reflect kind of guy, he is driven toward his grand purpose. His approach is pragmatic and practical. People, finding the right ones, and building chemistry among them, is a strength that made him a successful …

Book Review: Frontiers In Colorado Paleoindian Archaeology: From The Dent Site To The Rocky Mountains Edited By Robert H. Brunswig And Bonnie L. Pitblado, Jason M. Labelle

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

For a little over 75 years, Colorado has played host to important discoveries regarding the peopling of the New World during the latest Pleistocene, with the earliest human occupations dating to at least l3,000 years before the present. Frontiers in Colorado Paleoindian Archaeology is a welcome addition to the already large body of research concerning this popular subject. The edited volume contains an introduction, ten chapters broken into three sections, an afterword, and a thorough index. Part 1 provides the context for the volume, including an environmental reconstruction of the Front Range (J.P. Doerner) and an overview of the history …

Perception Of Drought Hazard And Its Sociological Impacts In South-Central Nebraska, Donna L. Woudenberg, Donald A. Wilhite, Michael Hayes

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The lion's share of financial losses caused by drought is shouldered by crop and livestock producers. Producers' perceptions of and responses to drought were studied in the mid-1960s, the mid-1980s, and again in this study. Direct and indirect impacts are experienced by nonfarm businesses, communities, and individuals as well; some of those impacts have not been well researched and were integral to this project. Interviews with crop producers, livestock producers, and community members were conducted in Frontier County, NE, in late summer 2006. Producers are very perceptive of the drought hazard, a result found in the two previous studies. Adoption …

Review Of The Grasslands Of The United States: An Environmental History. By James E. Sherow, Francis Moul

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Environmental history is a fairly new and complex method of study. It is, according to historian Richard White, the history of consequences of human actions on the environment, and the reciprocal consequences of an altered nature on human society. This interaction thus combines natural history with social, economic, and political history, along with many more subspecies of study.

James Sherow's environmental history of America's grasslands is quite welcome. Although grass covers much of the earth's surface (12 billion of29 billion acres), it may be the least studied or popularized of plants. The National Grasslands of the U.S. are among the …

Stated Preferences For Ecotourism Alternatives On Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation, Robert R. Hearne, Sheldon Tuscherer

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Despite favorable locations and the potential for economic development, Native American tribes have not developed their ecotourism markets substantially. In this paper we present a choice experiments analysis of potential tourists' and local residents' preferences for alternative ecotourism development scenarios for the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. The choice experiments' elicitation featured attributes of both cultural and nature-based tourist attractions. Survey results demonstrated that visitors interviewed at powwows had significantly different preferences from those interviewed at local tourist attractions. Results from all samples showed positive preferences toward an amphitheater, a nature trail, and a bison meal, and no preference toward …

News And Notes

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

CONFERENCES

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Book Review: America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers By Chuck Hagel With Peter Kaminsk, Charlyne Berens

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

In America: Our Next Chapter, Hagel presents his take on where the nation stands and where he thinks it is-and should be-headed. The volume reflects his interest in history, his Nebraska heritage, and the insider knowledge he's gained as a member of the Senate and its Foreign Relations Committee. More than half the book addresses international relations and U.S. foreign policy, one of Hagel's longtime and most intense interests. It criticizes America's invasion of Iraq and the way the Bush administration handled the war. Hagel voted for the resolution authorizing the invasion but writes that the president and his …

Book Review: Twilight Of The Texas Democrats: The 1978 Governor's Race By Kenneth Bridges, Sean P. Cunningham

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The political earth shook in 1978 when, for the first time since Reconstruction, a Republican won Texas's most coveted electoral prize, the governorship. In his new book, Twilight of the Texas Democrats, historian Kenneth Bridges provides what for years to come will be undoubtedly the most well-written and comprehensive account of this critical moment. Bridges's book is a fast-paced, traditional political narrative. Though the author briefly contextualizes the political culture of the late 1970s by retracing Texas history from the Civil War to the modern era, the book's primary focus and major characters are the candidates and campaign managers …