Toward a Synthetic Interpretation of the Mountain West: Diversity, Isolation, and Cooperation BY T H O M A S G. ALEXANDER G U E S T EDITOR
in 1931, Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains has had a tremendous impact upon assumptions underpinning the historiography of the region west of the 98th meridian. In this pioneering study, Webb argued that O I N C E ITS PUBLICATION
A plains e n v i r o n m e n t , such as t h a t f o u n d in t h e western U n i t e d States, presents t h r e e distinguishing characteristics: 1. I t exhibits a comparatively level surface of great extent. 2.
I t is a treeless land, a n unforested a r e a .
3.
I t is a region w h e r e rainfall is insufficient for the o r d i n a r y intensive agriculture c o m m o n to lands of a h u m i d climate.
Webb believed that any region exhibiting two of the three characteristics ought to be considered part of the Plains environment. The Mountain West was included because, according to Webb, it was treeless and arid. 1 That the third feature obtains in the Mountain West, hardly anyone would deny. But that it displays either of the other two to any consistent degree, only those unfamiliar with the region would affirm. Far from Dr. Alexander, associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, has been a frequent contributor t o t h e Quarterly. The editors are grateful to Dr. Alexander for his help in arranging for this special issue. The author wishes to express his appreciation for the suggestions of James B. Allen, Everett L. Cooley, S. George Ellsworth, and Charles S. Peterson. "Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (Boston, 1931), 3-4 and map between 4-5. Webb, "The Great Plains and the Industrial Revolution," in Allan G. Bogue, Thomas D. Phillips, and James E. Wright, The West of the American People (Itasca, 111., 1970), 11-14. See for example W. Eugene Hollon, The Great American Desert Then and Now (New York, 1966) ; Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (Cambridge, 1950)!
