Walter Prescott Webb

Walter Prescott Webb (April 3, 1888–March 8, 1963) was a 20th century U.S. historian and author noted for his groundbreaking historical work on the American West. As president of the Texas State Historical Association, he launched the project that produced the Handbook of Texas. He is also noted for his early criticism of the water usage patterns in the region.

Biography

Webb was born near Carthage in rural Panola County, Texas and grew up on his family farm. After graduating from Ranger High School in Ranger in Eastland County, he earned a teaching certificate and taught at several Texas schools. He eventually attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a B.A. in 1915 at the age of twenty-seven. He worked as bookkeeper in San Marcos and optometrist's assistant in San Antonio, then in 1918 he was invited to join the history faculty at the University of Texas. He wrote his master's thesis on the Texas Rangers in 1920 and was encouraged to pursue his Ph.D.. After a year of study at the University of Chicago, he returned to Austin where he began a historical work on the West. The result of this work was The Great Plains, published in 1931, hailed as great breakthrough in the interpretation of the history of the region, and declared the outstanding contribution to American history since World War I by the Social Science Research Council in 1939. He was awarded his Ph.D. for his work on the book in 1932, the year after its publication.

From 1939 to 1946 he served as president of the Texas State Historical Association. During his tenure as president, he launched a project to produce an encyclopedia of Texas, which was subsequently published in 1952 as the Handbook of Texas. The world wide web version of the work is a popular Internet reference tool on the state. In all, he wrote or edited more than twenty books.

Webb was an esteemed historian when he wrote an article in the May 1957 edition of Harper's entitled "The American West, Perpetual Mirage". In the article, Webb criticized U.S. water policy in the West, stating that the region was "a semidesert with a desert heart", and that it was a national folly to continue to follow the current federal policy (managed through the United States Bureau of Reclamation) of attempting to convert the region into productive cropland through irrigation. Webb's criticism of federal policy was roundly rebuked at the time, but some contemporary critics of U.S. water policy regard him as prophetic in his views.

Webb was killed in an automobile accident near Austin. He was interred in Texas State Cemetery on the proclamation of then Governor John B. Connally.

See also

• J. Frank Dobie
• Eugene C. Barker
• Ernest Wallace

References

• Reisner, Marc (1986). Cadillac Desert. ISBN 0-14-017824-4. 

External links

• Walter Prescott Webb from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Walter Prescott Webb at the Open Directory Project