Books published by University of Alaska Press

"Arctic people live in and observe the Arctic environment year-round. Intimate knowledge of the environment and environmental changes is fundamental to their survival. They frequently depend on natural resources for their livelihood. This book presents a review of the capabilities, good practices, opportunities and barriers of community-based environmental monitoring programs in the Arctic, with a focus on decision-making for resource management"--

"Cabin 135 exists as place and idea, abode and quirky companion. As place, the house offered abundant opportunities to explore and contemplate decisions made by previous residents. As an abstraction, the log-built cabin both anchored and propelled my speculative notions of time and place. Eventually, I looked outward, beyond the house toward the microcosms of garden and yard and on toward a wider terrain. Nature meanders through my life as an ongoing theme, whether semi-tamed garden, national park, or wild-seeming forest. My narrative journey samples history, gardening, and nature as well as grappling with a many-faced house. Within the thematic structure of this book, I learn to pay more attention to my surroundings-sometimes with a broad-brush approach such as considering a swath of vegetation, other times, contemplating only a small plot of forest or garden, or a patch of wall inside the house. While searching for narrative larger than myself, everything I experienced, pondered, and tinkered with became part of my story and I puzzled over how we change places in both minuscule and wide-ranging ways"--

Whether the reader is a student of history or someone unacquainted with Adolphus Greely's ill-fated expedition into the Arctic during the early 1880s, Alden Todd's book will prove interesting and informative.

"In 1941, Anna Harker is attacked by an ax-wielding assailant in the gold-bearing ridges bordering the Alaska Range. It is this moment of savagery that propels the people of Wild Rivers, Wild Rose. Anna's lover,Wade Daniels, learns of the deaths of Anna's husband and their farmhand, and he rushes to the hills to look for Anna and hunt the murderer. As she lies dying on the tundra, Anna relives the major events of her Alaska life while searching her memories for what could have led to the violence. And, decades later, an outsider named Billie Sutherland steps into a community still haunted by the murders. Plagued by her own ghosts, Billie delves into the past, opening old wounds. In this gripping novel by Sarah Birdsall, lives are laid bare and secrets ring out in the resonant Alaska Range foothills"

Please give a 200- to 300-word description of your book. The growth of modern-day Alaska began with the Klondike gold discovery in 1896. Over the course of the next two decades, as prospectors, pioneers, and settlers rushed in, Alaska developed its agricultural and mineral resources, birthed a structure of highway and railroad transportation, and founded the cities we know today. All this activity occurred within the context of the Progressive Age in American politics. It was a time of reform as Progressive politicians took on the powerful business trusts and enacted sweeping reforms to protect workers and consumers. As the population of Alaska grew, Congress responded to the needs of the nation's northern possession, giving the territory a delegate to Congress, a locally elected legislature, and ultimately in 1914 the federally funded Alaska Railroad. Progressives believed that government could and should be the agent of reform and a force for positive change in people's lives. In the traditional view of Alaska history, Alaska is considered to have been continually neglected and abused by the federal government. I contend, however, that in the years from 1896 to 1916 the territory benefitted richly in the age of Progressive Democracy. > Please give a 100-word description of your book. > Please give a one-sentence description of your book. Alaska benefitted richly in the years from 1896 to 1916, when, coincident with the Progressive Age in American politics, the idea prevailed that government at its best could be an instrument for positive social and economic change in people's lives.