Books published by University of Washington Press

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this book examines the impact of economic development on ethnic minority people living along the upper-middle reaches of the Nu (Salween) River in Yunnan.

In 1894, the author left her New England home to move with her merchant husband to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. The book offers highlights from her letters along with illuminating historical and biographical information.

Showcases creative writing and visual artworks by sixty-one women of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Thai, and Filipino ancestry. This book features storytelling that troubles the borders of categorization and reflects the multilayered experience of Southeast Asian women.

In 1861, when China's devastating Taiping rebellion began, the author was seven years old. The Taiping rebel army occupied Shaoxing, his hometown, and for the next two years, he hid from Taiping soldiers, local bandits, and imperial troops and witnessed gruesome scenes of violence and death. This book tells his story.

Every winter, early settlers of the US and Canadian Mountain West could expect to lose dozens of lives to deadly avalanches. This book uncovers stories of survival struggles, frightening avalanches, and how local knowledge challenged legal traditions that defined avalanches as Acts of God.

Before commercial whaling was outlawed in the 1980s, diplomats, scientists, bureaucrats, and environmentalists, had attempted to create an international regulatory framework that would allow for a sustainable whaling industry. This book provides a perspective on the challenges facing international conservation projects.

Offers the story that begins with the discovery and commercialization of the remnant of an ancient "queendom" on the Sichuan-Tibet border. This title examines the consequences of development of the queendom label for local ethnic, gender, and political identities and for state-society relations.

Explores the response of Israel's Nobel laureate S Y Agnon to the privileged position of the Song of Songs in Israeli culture. This book recasts Israeli biblicism as a peculiar chapter within the history of biblical exegesis.

The Appalachian Trail, a thin ribbon of wilderness running through the densely populated eastern United States, offers a refuge from modern society and a place apart from human ideas and institutions. This book tells the story of the trail's creation.

Explores the tensions inherent in balancing an ideology dedicated to limiting the power of government with a commitment to protecting treasured landscapes and ecological health. The author argues that "antistatist" beliefs have colored the American passion for wilderness but also complicated environmental protection efforts.

Examines the complexities of translating Yiddish literature at a time when the Yiddish language is in decline. The author traces historical and aesthetic shifts through versions of these canonical texts, and she argues that these works and their translations form a conversation about Jewish history and identity.

Provides and analyzes examples of poetic themes, motifs, and imagery associated with the inner chambers by increasingly aware and sophisticated women writers

Examines different traditions' understandings of the stranger, the "other"

Examines the many ways in which people living along an international border negotiate their ethnic, cultural, and political identities

Tells the story of a tribe whose members waged a painful and sometimes bitter twenty-year struggle among themselves about whether to give up their status as a sovereign nation

Boldly exemplifies Native American contemporary art as important, relevant, and deserving of a place in the contemporary art cannon

Tells the life story of Billy Frank Jr., from his father's influential tales, through the difficult and contentious days of the Fish Wars, to today

Explores the myriad ways that modern life along the Yamuna is shaped by water, from the rural outskirts of the city to the polluted landscape of urban Delhi

Shows how a world of social meaning is evident in the literary subgenre of painting manuals, and provides insight into the links between art history, print culture, and social history

Highlights an urgent problem for indigenous communities around the world--repeated displacement from their lands

Details the Yup'ik elders' qanruyutet (words of wisdom) that guide their interactions with the environment

The first examination of Tawara's accomplishments within the context of Asian and contemporary painting

Born in 1904, the author grew up hearing the elders of her tribe tell of the hardships involved in moving from their villages to the reservation on Tulalip Bay. This book describes her life on the Tulalip Reservation and recounts the myriad problems tribes faced after resettlement.

Features editions and studies of five fragmentary scrolls containing collections of avadanas, or edifying stories. This title presents manuscript fragments that comprise twenty-one avadanas that briefly summarize stories, typically furnishing no more than a title, identification of the main character, and minimal reference to the plot.