In The Future of the Southern Plains, scholars bring the region to the forefront by asking important questions about its past and suggesting prospects for its future. The contributors, some of them natives of the region, bring to their work a blend of scholarship and personal experience. They match intellectual sophistication with deep affection for a place defined primarily as western Texas, Oklahoma, and eastern New Mexico. Within this volume is a story about America, a story about limits, and a story about challenging those limits.Seven historians, one geographer, and a paleoclimatologist contribute a wealth of observation, analysis, and commentary on the environmental characteristics and history of the Southern Plains. They address such themes as failing communities, scarce water, endangered species, and disappearing ways of life - and the possible results of these developments not only in the Southern Plains but elsewhere on the globe.

Based on presentations at a symposium sponsored by the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, these essays treat the most important aspects of life on the Southern Plains today, from climate, politics, and religion to business and environmental renewal.

Contributors and topics include:



Sherry L. Smith: Introduction
Dan Flores: Environmental destruction and preservation
John Miller Morris: Corporations and family farms
Diana Davids Olien: Oil production
John Opie: Water management
Jeff Roche: Political history
Yolanda Romero: Political history
Elliott West: Exploration
Connie Woodhouse: Droughts