UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS
Alaskan history is vast, complex, and well written on. It would be impossible to adequately summarize this history by only providing a handful of examples. Almost all of our resources in the Alaska Room could be broadly categorized as some form of Alaskan History, so we have chosen some of the most checked out items which we consider important to know when learning about Alaskan history!
The Fox Boy by 
Forty Years in the Wildnerness by 
Pilgrim's Wilderness by 
Shadows on the Koyukuk by 
In the Winter of the Orange Snow by 
"Since its first printing in 1969, The Thousand-Mile War has been acclaimed as one of the great accounts of World War II. Brian Garfield brought his skills as an author of narrative fiction to the history of the Aleutian campaign, putting together careful research and powerful storytelling to produce this compelling account of the battles of the United States and Japan on the bitter rim of the North Pacific." "The war in the Aleutians was fought in some of the worst climatic conditions on earth for men, ships, and airplanes. The sea was rough, the islands craggy and unwelcoming, and enemy number one was always the weather - the savage wind, fog, and rain of the Aleutian chain. The fog seemed to reach even into the minds of the military commanders on both sides, as they directed men into situations that so often had tragic results." "Now, half a century after the war ended, more of the fog has been lifted. For the original edition of The Thousand-Mile War, author Garfield studied the documentary record available on both sides of the Pacific and fleshed out the statistics and formal accounts with personal stories garnered from interviews, letters, and diaries of the participants. With this Classic Reprint edition, he has been able to incorporate many illustrations, including once classified photographs, and to add new information provided by the men who fought in and survived the war in the Aleutians. His aim to replace the so-called "Forgotten War" with a clear view of the big picture of Alaska's island war is now even more well realized."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This account of Bering's voyages examines the causes, foundations, and executions of the initial voyages made by Bering to what would be known as Alaska.
A technical examination of Bering's voyages and is a more modern alternative to Bering's Voyages Wither and Why.
Just over 140 years ago, the United States made one of the greatest land deals of all time, purchasing from Russia a massive piece of property near the Arctic Circle. Since then, the land known as Alaska has been the site of a gold rush and an oil boom, but those great events comprise only a small portion of the state's fascinating history. Historic Photos of Alaska captures the majesty, history, and regal beauty of America's largest and most northern state through nearly 200 archival black-and-white photographs of this awe-inspiring region. Author Dermot Cole takes the reader on a journey through Alaska's pristine natural beauty and documents moments from the 1898 gold rush to the only World War II invasion on North American soil, to the long-awaited statehood and the incredible destruction wrought by the massive 1964 earthquake. Don't miss this fascinating trip through Alaska's history!
When Alaskans in the 1950s demanded an end to "second-class citizenship" of territorial status, southern powerbrokers on Capitol Hill were the primary obstacles. They feared a forty-ninth state would tip the balance of power against segregation, and therefore keeping Alaska out of the Union was simply another means of keeping black children out of white schools. C.W. "Bill" Snedden, the publisher of America's farthest north daily newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, helped lead the battle of the Far North against the Deep South. Working behind the scenes with his protege, a young attorney named Ted Stevens, and a fellow Republican newspaperman, Secretary of Interior Fred Seaton, Snedden's "magnificent obsession" would open the door to development of the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, inspire establishment of the Arctic Wildlife Range (now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), and add the forty-ninth star to the flag. Fighting for the Forty-Ninth Star is the story of how the publisher of a little newspaper four thousand miles from Washington, D.C., helped convince Congress that Alaskans should be second-class citizens no more.
This book draws on little-known oral histories from the Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska to detail a period of bow-and-arrow warfare that took place in the region between 1300 and 1800. The result of more than thirty years of research, discussion, and field recordings involving more than one hundred Yup'ik men and women, Anguyiim Nalliini tells a story not just of war and violence, but also of its cultural context--the origins of place names, the growth of indigenous architectural practices, the personalities of prominent warriors and leaders, and the eventual establishment of peaceful coexistence. The book is presented in bilingual format, with facing-page translations, and it will be hailed as a landmark work in the study of Alaska Native history and anthropology.
Alaska has not evolved in a vacuum. It has been part of larger stories: the movement of Native peoples and their contact and accommodation to Western culture, the spread of European political economy to the New World, and the expansion of American capitalism and culture. Alaska, an American Colony focuses on Russian America and American Alaska, bringing the story of Alaska up to the present and exploring the continuing impact of Alaska Native claims settlements, the trans-Alaska pipeline, and the Alaska Lands Act. In contrast to the stereotype of Alaska as a place where rugged individualists triumph over the harsh environment, distinguished historian Stephen Haycox offers a less romantic, more complex history that emphasizes the broader national and international contexts of Alaska's past and the similarities between Alaska and the American West. Covering cultural, political, economic, and environmental history, the book also includes an overview of the region's geography and the anthropology of Alaska's Native peoples. Throughout Alaska, an American Colony, Haycox stresses the continuing involvement of Alaska Natives in the state's economic, political, and social life and development. He also explores the power of myth in historical representations of Alaska and the controlling influence of national perceptions of the region.