How settlers transformed America's most inhospitable frontier into an
economic powerhouse
Prairie busting is central to the lore of westward expansion, but how
was it actually accomplished with little more than animal and human
power? In Sod Busting, David B. Danbom tells the story of Great Plains
settlement in a way it has seldom been told before.
Stretching beyond the sweeping accounts typical of standard textbooks,
Danbom challenges students to think about the many practicalities of
surviving on the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century by
providing a detailed account of how settlers acquired land and made
homes, farms, and communities. He examines the physical and climatic
obstacles of the plains--perhaps America's most inhospitable
frontier--and shows how settlers sheltered themselves, gained access to
fuel and water, and broke the land for agriculture.
Treating the Great Plains as a post-industrial frontier, Danbom delves
into the economic motivations of settlers, as well as the physically and
economically difficult process of farm making. He explains how settlers
got the capital they needed to succeed and how they used the labor of
the entire family to survive until farms returned profits. He examines
closely the business decisions that determined the success or failure of
these farmers in a boom-and-bust economy; details the creation of
churches, schools, and service centers that enriched the social and
material lives of the settlers; and shows how the support of government,
railroads, and other businesses contributed to the success of plains
settlement.
Based on contemporary accounts, settlers' reminiscences, and the work of
other historians, Sod Busting dives deeply into the practical
realities of how things worked to make vivid one of the quintessentially
American experiences, breaking new land.
