The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region’s Environmental Histories

Like the authors in this edited collection, I am from the Great Plains, and I too think and write about home with mixed emotion. The challenge in writing about an actual flyover zone is convincing readers that there really is a reason to physically or intellectually visit the area. Most people, academics included, do not ever think of Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, or Kansas. When they do, it is usually not with much curiosity or enthusiasm. The editors and authors of the book tackle this challenge by centering the work on connections and relationships—between people and their environment—inside the Great Plains and outside via pipelines, wind, and food systems. In this way, the book is not a turn inward to reflect on the Great Plains but an attempt to broaden our understanding and encourage us to reimagine a Greater Plains, a place unmoored from national, ecological, social, and cultural boundaries.