Alaska Books

This book has some of the nicest pictures I've seen of the waters below the surface in and near Puget Sound, and up into British Colombia.

Preston Jones' EMPIRE'S EDGE: AMERICAN SOCIETY IN NOME, ALASKA 1898-1934 tells of a region 150 miles from the Arctic Circle which weathered many obstacles -p from the largest gold strikes in the world to war, epidemics, floods, fires and more. The gold strike brought ordinary 'lower 48' residents to a new home - and many daunting new challenges: EMPIRE'S EDGE traces their transitions and changes.

Also available in a hardcover edition (1889963348, $49.95), Ernest Gruening: Alaska's Greatest Governor by Claus-M. Naske (Professor Emeritus of History, University of Alaska, Fairbanks) is the biography of the man whom President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed as the governmor of territorial Alaska in 1939. For twenty years, Gruening served his post and left an indissoluable mark upon the state's future. Unpublished archival materials flesh out the author's study of the Gruening's political career, including his struggle to stop discrimination against Alaska Natives and, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, his efforts to oppose the Vietnam War. A remarkable story of the dedication, voice, and achievements of a great twentieth-century leader.

The collaborative effort of cultural anthropologist Molly Lee (Curator of Ethnology at the University of Alaska Museum and Professor of Anthropology, University of Alaska - Fairbanks) and Alaskan geoarcheology, and paleoindian prehistory expert Gregory A. Reinhardt, Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling And Structure In The Early Historic Period is a unique and seminal work of impeccable and ground breaking scholarship. Profusely illustrated, the informed and informative text covers Eskimo winter houses, transitional dwellings, summer dwellings, special-use structures, as well as associated rituals and beliefs organized in regional contexts which include Greenland; the Central Arctic; Northwest Arctic and Bering Strait; and Southwest Alaska, Bering Sea, Siberia, and Gulf of Alaska. Enhanced with a final chapter of "Summary and Conclusions", (as well as an Appendix, References, Names Index, and Subject Index), Eskimo Architecture is a unique and exceptionally welcome contribution to Native American Studies reference collections in general, and Eskimo Cultural Studies reading lists in particular.

This book is a really good book! It talks about an Inupiaq boy from Shishmaref. If you want to learn more just read this book. I know because that is my cousin.

I can't not say enough about this book. It is well written, thoughtful and personal. A must read!

Hello there, I am delighted to see that there is this book on the internet. I wanted people to know that I am the granddaughter of Tom Imgalrea. Would be nice to hear and answer any questions people may have. Unfortunatly, I was so young when my grandfather was alive. Thank you for the opportunity for people to get to know about the Cup'ik people. You should have seen me with a big 'ol grin on my face when I spotted this book. Quyana Caknek! Thank-you! Alwayz-n-forever Contessa M. Chayalkun

This book provides an overview of the Eskimo culture of Northern Alaska that the author found while he was doing his fieldwork in the region from 1958-1962. Chance spent the majority of his study time in Barrow, Kaktovik, and Wainwright, Alaska. One of his main projects was to study the degree of contact the Eskimos had had with Western culture, and how this was affecting their emotional well-being. Due to the nature of this study, much of this ethnography centers on the comparison between customs in the past and customs in the present, and on identifying factors that might be responsible for change.

The book includes material on the population and environment, child rearing, economic life in the past and in the present (1960s, that is), family and village structure, authority and politics, cultural values, and religious beliefs. Chance argues that, in the past, in order to survive, the Eskimos had to adapt their society and culture to fit the extreme conditions of the far North. Hunger was a powerful force, and fatalism a common response. One major aspect of change brought about by exposure to Western culture has been the possibility of working for wages. This has greatly reduced the role of hunger in society, but it has also required the people to remain in one location for great lengths of time. Wage labor has led to thousands of other consequences for the material culture as well as for the structure of society. At the end of the book are found a glossary of Eskimo vocabulary, a list of references cited, and an annotated list of recommended readings for further study. The book is illustrated with a few small black-and-white sketches.

The prose is quite clear and accessible to general readers. Chance avoids making the book simply a dry presentation of facts by interspersing anecdotes or traditional Eskimo stories in the text where appropriate.

This book contains the report written by John Murdoch on the ethnological studies of a US Army Signal Corps expedition to Point Barrow (actually about 7 or 8 miles south of the point itself) undertaken as part of the US effort in the International Polar Year. Although the primary thrust of the IPY was geophysical, the Point Barrow expedition collected a good amount of ethnological data, and large amounts of carefully documented material culture. Murdoch produced a very thorough well-illustrated report after returning from the field. Even skimming it should bring tremendous respect for the complex and ingeneous, yet sustainable, technology which enabled the Inupiat to not only survive, but thrive, in what is generally considered one of the harshest environments on Earth.

This volume contains that report along with a number of other documents produced by various members of the expedition, which prove to be very interesting supplements to Murdoch's report. The reproduction is excellent. Although it is in slighly smaller format than the original, the drawings and illustrations are still clear.

The primary audience will probably be those who are interested in pre- and post-contact Inupiat material culture, especially that of North Alaska, but others will find things of interest in it as well. Certainly, for anyone who needs to identify artifacts, whether archaeological or ethnographic, from this general region, this is the best resource there is besides an Elder. In fact, Murdoch has illustrations of things that some Elders of today have never seen in use.

This book is a true classic. The Smithsonian should be thanked for reissuing it, as the original was hard to find, expensive, and a bit heavy and delicate for field or lab use. This paperback version is both inexpensive enough and portable enough for such use. I actually have two copies (lab & office) so that the original can stay unmolested on the shelf.

Exploring Alaska's Birds: Alaska Geographic, Volume 28, Number 1 is filled from cover to cover with gorgeous color photography of Alaska's wild birds, ranging from ospreys to three-toed woodpeckers. Packed with insightful articles on these colorful and diverse feathered friends, their migration patterns and navigation systems, adaptations to Alaskan winters, as well as their relationships to people, Exploring Alaska's Birds is a remarkable and highly recommended addition to personal, school, and community library ornithological reference collections.