The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 523
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
area thinking and ways have failed to realize the area's full poten-
tial; (3) he reveals how economic control over the area by East-
ern financial, transportation, communication, and processing
agencies have hurt the progress and prosperity of Plains people;
and (4) he proposes a plan of regionalism as the focal means
of implementing solutions to the area's problems.
Kraenzel skillfully discusses what is wrong with the Plains area,
but he fails to make clear how some of his proposed solutions to
the area's problems are to work. Three points, however, are dis-
cussed below which illustrate the general trend of Kraenzel's
thinking about the problems of the Great Plains area.
First, Kraenzel cogently shows why successful adaptation to the
Great Plains depends upon the ability of individuals, groups, and
institutions to achieve mobility, flexibility, and/or adequate re-
serves in their operations. The presence of one or more of these
factors can be seen, for example, in the lives of certain plants and
animals that have successful adapted themselves to the region's
semiaridity. In contrast, the absence of all of these factors has
spelled failure to other animals or plants. Unfortunately, humid-
area ideas do not provide enough flexibility, mobility, or reserves.
Consequently, humid-area ways-transplanted and forced up' n
the Great Plains--have produced drought, dust, and depopulation.
Such results, Kraenzel says, are really "measuring sticks" that in-
dicate non-adaptation to semiarid conditions.
Second, Kraenzel declares that the Plains area can no longer
support the humid-area way of life it now has. Humid-area ways,
he says, rest upon a base of resources which the Plains do not
have. Moreover, humid-area institutions assume three conditions
that are not valid for Plains people. These are: (1) that income
will be certain and stable; (2) that contracts will be performed
with stability and certainty; and (3) that future income and costs
can be predicted accurately. The hazards typical of a semiarid
land, however, simply do not permit these conditions to occur.
Hence, such conditions should not be forced upon the people of
the Great Plains as they are. One result of this error is that the
Plains region has become a high-risk credit area.
Plains people pay high interest rates because they are consid-
ered poor credit risks. Yet Plains people are not more dishonest,523
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/555/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.