Other International and Area Studies Commons^™

Review Of Women Writing Women: The Frontiers Reader Edited By Patricia Hart And Karen Weathermon, With Susan H. Armitage, Gioia Woods

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The essays collected in Women Writing Women: The Frontiers Reader weave together theoretical, personal, and material frameworks feminist scholars use to write about their lives and the lives of other women. The essays, organized centrifugally ("Writing the Self" to "Writing Women from a Distance"), were selected by the editors from essays published originally in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Like the journal, Women Writing Women is multidisciplinary, theoretically informed, and, above all, grounded in the lived experiences of diverse women. Explaining the cohesiveness of the anthology in their introduction, editors Hart, Weathermon, and Armitage insist that the "diversity …

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man Of The Oglalas By Marl Sandoz Historiography, A Philosophy For Reconstruction, Mary Dixon

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

HISTORIOGRAPHY: MYTH FOR ENLIGHTENMENT

Noted historians Will and Ariel Durant have outlined the importance of knowing, understanding, and celebrating history as a valuable heritage. They call historiography "an industry, an art, and a philosophy-an industry by ferreting out the facts, an art by establishing a meaningful order in the chaos of the materials, a philosophy by seeking perspective and enlightenment." A true evaluation of the history of the American West is an important consideration for Americans, because as the Durants claim, there is much to gain from a proper understanding of it. In order to gain perspective and enlightenment from …

The Art Of Open Spaces Contemporary Sea And Prairiescapes, Elizabeth Schultz

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Once part of a great inland sea, Kansas and other Great Plains states have been landlocked for millennia. Yet the prairies' "grassy waves" and "islands of cottonwoods" continue to evoke these ancient waters. Diane Quantic in The Nature of the Place: A Study of Great Plains Fiction points out that "[ilt is a rare plains writer who does not invoke the image of the sea of grass, and a rare critic or observer [of the plains] who does not comment upon [this image's] ubiquity." In his index for The Great Prairie Fact and Literary Imagination, under "Prairie, likened to ocean," …

Review Of Indian Wars: The Campaign For The American West By Bill Yenne, Todd Leahy

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Arguing that the Indian Wars after the Civil War were the longest campaign ever waged by the United States military, Bill Yenne once again covers welltrod territory. To anyone familiar with the work of Robert M. Utley, Yenne's Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West is immediately recognizable. Yenne states that his work will break down old stereotypes about the Indian wars and that "this book places the people and the battles in the context of the overall history of the nineteenth century and the Indian Wars in the West so that their place in American history will be …

Review Of Hidden In Plain Sight: Contributions Of Aboriginal Peoples To Canadian Identity And Culture, Volume L Edited By David R. Newhouse, Cora J. Voyageur, And Dan Beavon, Robin Brownlie

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Hidden in Plain Sight is a book with an unusual agenda: to discuss and publicize the many constructive, meaningful contributions that Aboriginal peoples have made to Canadian society. Aimed primarily at the general public, students, and Aboriginal people themselves, the book contains essays from treaty researchers, civil servants, lawyers, teachers, curators, artists, writers, undergraduate students, and academics. The book's impetus arose from its editors' frustration over the constant equation of Aboriginal people with pain, problems, and struggle. Widely absent from public discourse and academic writing, they felt, was attention to the strengths and capacity of Aboriginal peoples, their achievements in …

Review Of Indians And Emigrants: Encounters On The Overland Trail By Michael L. Tate, Susan Badger-Doyle

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Relations between emigrants and the Indians they encountered along the central route of trails ro Oregon, California, and the Salt Lake Valley were a significant aspect of overland travel, particularly on the segment crossing the Great Plains. Emigrants and Indians is a comprehensive study of the complex history of these intercultural relations from 1840 to 1870. In contrast to popular stereotypical images of "savage" Indians and a focus on conflict, Michael Tate shows that cooperation, aid, and mutual benefit dominated Indian-white relations throughout the period. In topical chapters, he examines the evolving nature of relations between two fundamentally different peoples …

Review Of The Conquest Of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing In The Promised Land, 1820-1875 By Gary Clayton Anderson, Sam W. Haynes

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The struggle between Native Americans and Anglo-Americans in Texas was a long and violent one. Beginning with the arrival of the first settlers to Stephen F. Austin's colony in the 1820s, when the area was still under Mexican rule, it would continue largely unabated until the U.S. Army's campaign against the western Plains tribes in the 1870s. In his latest book, Gary Anderson reexamines this collision of cultures, and in doing so challenges the triumphalist, Anglocentric narrative that has long dominated the historiography of the state.

In seeking to provide a new paradigm for the racial conflict that spanned half …

Review Of Tulia: Race, Cocaine, And Corruption In A Small Texas Town By Nate Blakeslee, J. Patrick Hazel

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Tulia is a fascinating read and hard to put down. Unfortunately (especialiy for a native Texan), it is a true story that took place during the last year of the twentieth century and the first three years of the twenty-first in a small Texas town of about 5,000 located in Swisher County in the Texas Panhandle. The dominant themes are racial prejudice and legal misdoings, if not corruption, with justice finally winning out. But it is not really a "happy ending" book.

The events in Tulia were too reminiscent of my childhood. As a Texas trial lawyer and teacher of …

Review Of American Women Modernists: The Legacy Of Robert Henri, 1910-1945 Edited By Marian Wardle, Sharon L. Kennedy-Gustafson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

There is a common tendency in art history to lump artists and art styles into simplified categories, and early-twentieth-century modernist art is no exception. While the term broadly encompassed the ideas of individuality and social diversity, it later became equated with abstract art and an aggressive style, dominated by men. In this book, Marian Wardle and six other female scholars set out to broaden the modern art parameters and reinsert some two hundred professional women artists into the picture. Because Robert Henri taught thousands of men and women over a thirty-five-year period, the unifying thread is this astute, modernist teacher …

Review Of Lethal Legacy: Current Native Controversies In Canada By J. R. Miller, Nathalie Kermoal

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Apart from being from Western Canada, what do Louis Riel and Peter Lougheed have in common? According to J. R. Miller, the two have a shared heritage: both are Metis. Yet, in the eyes of Canadians, one is always identified as Metis while the other is not. This interesting parallel helps the author grapple with the complicated question of Native identity in the first chapter of Lethal Legacy: Current Native Controversies in Canada.

The reasons for writing a book with such a title are clearly indicated in the preface. Miller-professor of history and Canada Research Chair in Native-newcomer Relations at …

Review Of The University Of Oklahoma: A History. Volume I, 1890-1917 By David W. Levy, Patricia Loughlin

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

A research project fifteen years in the making, David W. Levy's first volume in a series of three on the institutional history of the University of Oklahoma invites the reader to think about the origins of higher education on the barren Southern Plains during the territorial days. Established in 1890 by the territorial legislature, the University of Oklahoma held its first classes in September 1892 with four instructors and fifty-seven students (half were women) and grew to 2,516 students, 154 faculty members (almost exclusively men) and two campuses by 1917. David Ross Boyd, the university's first president, provided stability and …

Review Of L. A. Huffman: Photographer Of The American West By Larry Len Peterson, Carl Mautz

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Visual history is gaining respect as a portal to the past, and one individual who stands out in depicting life on the northern Great Plains of the American West is Laton Alton Huffman. This book is a splendid celebration of Huffman's life work, first as post photographer at Fort Keogh in 1879 where he made portraits of Indians near the end of the Indian Wars, and later as a professional photographer in Miles City, Montana, where he recorded life on the frontier, including buffalo, cattle ranching, hunting, small town life, western personalities, reservation life, and the beginning of the end …

Review Of A Western Legacy: The National Cowboy And Western Heritage Museum Foreword By Charles P. Schroeder, James D. Mclaird

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City is the subject of this inaugural volume in the University of Oklahoma Press's Western Legacies Series. The museum was the brain child of Chester Arthur Reynolds who in 1955 suggested there should be a hall of fame for cowboys. After a decade of planning and fund raising, the institution opened its doors. Now, fifty years later, the museum houses more than 30,000 historical objects and works of art. This book commemorates the museum's founding and details its history, activities, collections, and exhibits. It is a beautiful work, including eighty full-page …

Review Of General James G. Blunt: Tarnished Glory By Robert Collins, William Garrett Piston

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

James G. Blunt's name is obscure except among those who specialize in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War. In that neglected region he was a major personage in both political and military affairs. A native of Maine, an abolitionist, and a Republican, he moved to the Kansas Territory in 1856 and was an active player in the Free State cause. He became one of the most important supporters of Free State politician James H. Lane, and to a significant degree his fortunes rose or fell with those of the "Grim Chieftain." Partly due to Lane's wartime patronage, Blunt served …

Review Of Wild Prairie: A Photographer's Personal Journey By James R. Page, Larry Schwarm

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The landscape of the prairie is often overlooked in favor of more dramatic mountain ranges and wild forests, yet it is an ecosystem teaming with life and beauty. Grasslands are the backbone of our planet, but to appreciate the prairie takes time. Photographer James R. Page immersed himself in the prairie to observe and understand its vastness and subtleties, using his camera to record his vision. He shares these photographs, and thoughtfully written observations, in his US-page book, Wild Prairie: A Photographer's Personal Journey.

Early in the text, Page states that "Everything on the prairie seems either" huge or …

Review Of Chasing The Rodeo: On Wild Rides And Big Dreams, Broken Hearts And Broken Bones, And One Man's Search For The West By W. K. Stratton, Wayne S. Wooden

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Chasing the Rodeo involves one man's year-long search for himself, his father, and both the rodeo of his childhood past (during the classical period of the 1950s) and of today.

W. K. Stratton skillfully weaves what might look like disparate themes into a riveting, coherent book of introspection and renewal. In part, the book focuses on his personal chase to explore the ways of a shiftless father who left the family in the author's childhood to follow dreams of booze, bulls, and bucks. In part, it is a story of the author at midlife coming to terms with this haunt …

Notes And News- Winter 2007

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Notes and News

Call For Papers

Call For Papers

Larom Summer Institute In Western American Studies

50th Annual Missouri Valley History Conference

11th International Cather Seminar

Mormon History Association 41st Annual Meeting

Centennial Meeting Of Organization Of American Historians

Homestead Conference

Review Of North American Icelandic: The Life Of A Language, Kirsten Wolf

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

A curious phonological feature of North American Icelandic is flámceli ("skewed speech"). The term refers to the apparent mergers of two sets of front vowels: on the one hand (1) and (E), and on the other hand (Y) and (ö). Flámceli was widespread in certainly one of the areas of Iceland that witnessed considerable emigration to North America in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and was brought to the New World in the speech of the immigrants. It was found in three regional dialects of Icelandic up until the last few decades when, through official efforts, it was …

Physiological Responses Of Four Hazelnut Hybrids To Water Availability In Nebraska, Tala Awada, Scott Josiah

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Responses of hazelnut hybrids (88BS, BOX1, Gl7, and GEL502) to water availability (watered and nonwatered) were examined in the field. The study site received 35% of long-term average precipitation between July and September. Photosynthesis (A), stomatal conductance (g_s), water potential (Ψ), and specific leaf area were generally lower in the nonwatered than in the watered treatment and exhibited significant seasonal decline, which was accompanied by an increase in water use efficiency (WUE) under both water treatments. Hybrids exhibited different strategies to cope with water availability. The hybrid 88BS was more water conserving, with the most decline in g …

Review Of False Expectations: Politics And The Pursuit Ofthe Saskatchewan Myth, Cristine De Clercy

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

For much of its history Saskatchewan has been a net exporter of people, mainly to adjacent Great Plains locales and across North America. Many expatriates retain psychological ties to this prairie province that stretch beyond familial or historical connections, and this deep sense of identity is puzzling to students of prairie polities. Unlike other established societies with high out-migration levels such as Newfoundland, Saskatchewan was settled fairly recently, and many families lived there for one or two generations at most before leaving. How is it that in a relatively brief period many new immigrants developed such a deep and abiding …

Review Of Deer Of The Southwest: A Complete Guide To The Natural History, Biology, And Management Of Southwestern Mule Deer And White-Tailed Deer., Ruben Cantu

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Very few books on the subject of deer in any particular region lend themselves to being complete. Jim Heffelfinger's book breaks the mold. It is by far the most comprehensive book on mule deer and white-tailed deer in the southwestern part of the United States, including Plains portions of Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, I've ever read. Everything you ever wanted to know about these two deer species can be found in its pages, starting from the natural history and early evolution of deer into the New World, separation into two species, selection of habitat types by the two, general …

Review Of Farming And The Fate Of Wild Nature: Essays In Conservation- Based Agriculture., Judith Soule

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The editors of this collection set out to "provide the scientific, philosophical, economic, and cultural underpinnings for an emerging movement, conservation-based agriculture." With many well-recognized contributors (e.g., Berry, Leopold, Kingsolver, Bass, Pollan), the volume should appeal to readers of both conservation biology and sustainable farming. The book uses an accessible journalistic or essayist rather than a scientific referenced style, though several selections provide clear syntheses of scientific findings (e.g., "Context Matters" by Reed Noss and 'The Role of Top Carnivores" by John Terborgh et al.). Wide variation in styles and topics tends to distract from the cohesion within sections. I …

Review Of Plant Breeding: The Arnel R. Hallauer International Symposium., Jianming Yu

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This book is a compilation of papers presented at The Arnel R. Hallauer international Symposium on Plant Breeding in Mexico City on August 17-22, 2003. As the title indicates, the symposium was held to honor Dr. Arnel Hallauer, a great plant breeder, scientist, and teacher. The book discusses the past and present status of plant breeding worldwide and presents various perspectives about the future of this life-altering discipline. In 27 chapters, it documents the history, accomplishments, and challenges of plant breeding as a discipline as well as its methods in many different crop species.

Review Of Indian Gaming And Tribal Sovereignty: The Casino Compromise., James V. Fenelon

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This is an excellent book, with a couple of provisos. Considering the relative dearth of material on the relationship between tribal sovereignty and Indian gaming, the authors have probably the best work currently in print. Light and Rand take us through three major frameworks that clarify these complex relationships: federal Indian law and policy (their area of specialty); laws and constructions of Indian gaming and tribal sovereignty; and the associated politics of Indian gaming in a number of contexts. It is in their handling of the fourth framework, where they try to identify an "indigenous perspective," which either doesn't exist …

Review Of Dakota Flora: A Seasonal Sampler, James H. Locklear

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

There are few books on the plants of the Great Plains, and most of these are too technical to appeal to average readers, even those interested in natural history. Thankfully, this situation has changed with the arrival of David J. Ode's Dakota Flora: A Seasonal Sampler.

Review If Agates: Treasures Of The Earth, Frances V. Belohlavy

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

All of us have at one time or another picked up a "pretty" rock whether from a parking lot or on a field trip, without always recognizing the beauty that can be brought out when the rock is cut and polished.Agates: Treasures of the Earth gives us a revelatory look at this group of dazzling stones.

Review Of Being Lakota: Identity And Tradition On Pine Ridge Reservation., Paula L. Wagoner

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Identity everywhere is complicated, but, in my experience, nowhere as complicated as on the contemporary Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This book is about one family "down East" in the small town of Allen, South Dakota, just over the Bennett County line. Petrillo does not seek to give an exhaustive picture of identity on Pine Ridge, focusing instead primarily on one married couple, Melda and Lupe Trejo and their narrative of their life together. Their lives are not necessarily emblematic of all the residents of Pine Ridge, but illustrate the ways in which personal, family, and religious identities are intertwined, flexible, …

Prairie Sandreed Response To Preceding-Year Defoliation And Precipitation Regime, Patrick E. Reece, Justin W. Morris, Walter H. Schacht, Ann E. Koehler, Jerry D. Vole Sky, Lowell E. Moser

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Knowledge of how current-year grazing and drought stress affect subsequent-year herbage production is needed to enhance the management of semiarid Sandhills prairies. This study quantifies subsequent- year effects of defoliation and precipitation on prairie sandreed (Calamovilfa longijolia), a high-seral, warm-season tallgrass, and total graminoid herbage production in the Nebraska Sandhills. Mainplots (9.0 m2) received either ambient precipitation (noncovered) or precipitation was excluded during April-May, June-July, or August-September, resulting in 66% to 135% of the long-term average (434 mm) precipitation. All species in 1.0 m2 defoliated subplots were clipped in early July at the stubble height required for 30%, …

Review Of The Nature Of Eastern North Dakota: Pre-1880 Historical Ecology, Dennis H. Knight

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Biologists, anthropologists, and land managers have at least two primary reasons for digging deeply into the journals of early explorers and inhabitants of an area. One is pure enjoyment, the kind that comes with learning from firsthand observers about the environment, people, flora, and fauna that existed over a century ago. Another is coming to a better understanding of the development of the ecosystems on which we now depend, and thereby gaining insights into how to achieve the elusive goal of sustainable land management while protecting the biological diversity that remains. Accessing this information is taxing, occurring as it does …

Review Of Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment In Texas During The Modern Era, Nicole Casarez

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Texas has a notorious reputation as the death-penalty capital of America. The sheer number of Texas executions since 1976 has created a statistical pool that Jon Sorenson and Rochy Pilgrim use in Lethal Injection to address four major factual (as opposed to moral) issues surrounding the death penalty: (1) Does it deter would-be murderers from killing? (2) Does it prevent probable future acts of violence by those sentenced to death? (3) Is it applied to the most deserving defendants? (4) Is it imposed fairly and cost-effectively? These are certainly the right questions, and, for the most part, the authors do …