Great Plains Studies, Center for

 

Date of this Version

2005

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 25:4 (Fall 2005). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Great Plains geographer James R. Shortridge has added another soundly researched study to his impressive list of works. He asks some rather simple questions, and, like all simple questions, they demand elaborated, intelligent answers. Shortridge first asks what caused some urban dreamers to realize their goals and others not. Second, he delves into how the current hierarchy of cities emerged in Kansas. Why and how, for example, did Wichita arise as a regional powerhouse when at the same time other cities failed to become dominant even though they may have been better situated at one time? Or, why isn't there a major city of "coalescence" in the western part of the state?

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