Customer Reviews

The Lonesome Plains: Death and Revival on an American Frontier (West Texas a&M University Series, 7)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Using interviews, diaries and published sources, Mr. Fairchild, a psychology professor at Texas A & M University, Canyon, Texas, explores a rarely discussed subject - the suffocating and omnipresent loneliness of the Panhandle frontier.

Diet, infant mortality, burial procedures and etiquette, mourning, and the importance of friendship and neighborliness are all covered by these sobering and sometimes heartrending personal accounts. Also discussed is the way men dealt with these problems and benefits, which predictably, was quite different from women.

Instead of romanticizing the pioneers - the facts revealed in their writings make them more human and
allow for an easy connection with the reader. The details of everyday pioneer life are valuable and the passages gleaned from letters and diaries are well chosen.

Thankfully, the second part of the book is a little lighter than the first and covers the camp or brush arbor meetings. Here the reader is relieved to find that there was some fun to be had when families would bring their children, dogs and most of their furniture to these semi-annual events. Getting a year or six months worth of friendship and/ or religion crowded into a few short days is something few societies experience.

It's a readable book on a serious subject without a droning academic tone.