Book Description
From Abilene to Wichita and beyond, a constellation of cities glitters across the fertile plains of Kansas. Their history is entwined with that of the state as a whole, and their size and status are rarely questioned. Yet as James Shortridge reveals, the evolution of urban Kansas remains a largely untold story of competition, rivalry, and metropolitan dreams.

Cities on the Plains relates the history of Kansas's larger communities from the 1850s to the present. The first book to provide a comprehensive, comparative account of an entire state's urban development, it shows how Kansas's current hierarchy of cities and urban development emerged from a complex and ongoing series of promotional strategies. Railroads, the mining industry, the cattle trade--all exercised their influence over where and when these settlements were originally established.

Drawing on rich historical research filtered through cultural geography, Shortridge looks at the 118 communities that ever achieved a population of 2,500. He tells how mercantilism dominated urban thinking in territorial days until after statehood, when cities competed for the capital, prisons, universities, and other institutions. He also shows how geography and size were employed by entrepreneurs and government officials to prepare strategies for economic development. And he describes how the railroads especially promoted the founding of cities in the nineteenth century--and how this system has fared since 1950 in the face of globalization and the growth of interstate highways.

Throughout the book, Shortridge demonstrates how cities competed for dominance within their regions, and he solves mysteries of growth and stagnation by evaluating them according to their abilities to respond to change. Sharing anecdotes along with insights, he tells why Wichita is the unexpected metropolis, why the citizens of Leavenworth thought a prison was a better urban asset than a college, and how Garden City grew despite the plans of the Santa Fe Railroad.

Cities on the Plains provides an incisive new look not only at Kansas history but also at how American cities in general have evolved over the last century and a half. ... Read more

Book Description
In the wake of the turbulent 1850s, Kansas was popularly portrayed as a Yankee stronghold, a "child of Plymouth Rock" where Puritan virtue triumphed over base Southern ways. Perpetuated by a century and a half of historical propaganda, this fictitious notion tenaciously shrouds the real Kansas.

In Peopling the Plains, James R. Shortridge helps set the record straight. Early Yankee settlers did indeed influence the location of major education and governmental facilities, he shows, but they were only one of many regional and ethnic forces that molded the state's complex cultural and economic heritage. Germans and other Europeans established ethnic enclaves in central Kansas and introduced agricultural practices that persist today. Southerners expanded the cattle industry in the southern tier. Midland farmers came in search of cheaper land. Freed slaves sought urban and rural opportunities. Italians and other southern Europeans worked the southeastern mines. And Mexicans helped build the railroads.

Chock-full of information and maps constructed from a wealth of census data, this richly annotated atlas illustrates the distribution of settlers from diverse cultural and ethnic origins from across America and around the world. Regional maps, depicting northeastern, southeastern, central, and western counties, are broken down into townships to provide an accurate and detailed picture of the origins of the early immigrants.

Beyond mapping the physical settlement patterns--from those of pre-Civil War Yankee and Rebel colonies in the east to the configuration of turn-of-the-century homesteads in the west--Shortridge explores how those patterns were influenced by railroad routes and promotion; land prices and speculation practices; homesteading laws; U.S. and international social, economic, and political conditions; terrain; weather; and pioneer perseverance. He also demonstrates that many legacies of the original settlers have endured and are apparent today in social, political, agricultural, and religious customs throughout the state. ... Read more

Product Description
geography textbook ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Cultural Geography, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 618 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cities on the Plains: The Evolution of Urban Kansas.(Book Review)
Author: Peter J. McCormick
Publication: Journal of Cultural Geography (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 23Issue: 1Page: 143(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on July 1, 1997. The length of the article is 1623 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas have emerged as the new hog-producing region in the US, producing about four million hogs annually. Hog farms sprouted in the region as a result of the establishment of Seaboard Corp's hog processing plant near Texas County, OK. The firm has developed its own hog farms to sustain the plant's operations and has contracted with other producers to ensure a steady supply of animals. In addition, the relaxation of international trade barriers have attracted other hog producers to invest in the region.

Citation Details
Title: Pork palaces on the panhandle. (hog farms in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas)
Author: John Fraser Hart
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1997
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: v86Issue: n3Page: p396(5)

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Product Description
Special Edition of King's Advanced Geography ... Read more