Frigid Embrace: Politics, Economics, and Environment in Alaska
 |
By Stephen Haycox
Cover photograph by Kevin Smith
2002. 6 x 9 inches. 192 pages. Index.
ISBN 0-87071-536-4. Paperback, $21.95.
Table of Contents
Introduction
|
"In clear and compelling style, master historian Steve Haycox puts in perspective the elements, events, and conflicts that shaped Alaska culture and politics . . . it rates a place with the classics on how the West was won."
--John Strohmeyer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of
Extreme Conditions: Big Oil and the Transformation of Alaska
Since the arrival of white settlers, Alaska has been dependent on the development of successive natural resources- fur, then gold, salmon, copper, timber, and now oil. In
Frigid Embrace, Stephen Haycox explores how the drive to extract natural resources has shaped Alaskans' understanding of nature and their relationships with the region's Native people.
Vast, wild, and remote, Alaska has long been perceived as the last American frontier, where adventurous, self-reliant settlers could carve a new life through sweat and sheer strength of will. The truth is, however, that Alaska is supported by the highest per capita federal spending in the nation. And rather than escaping the consumer-oriented urban culture of mainstream America, Alaskan settlers have replicated it on the last frontier.
Frigid Embrace offers a revealing look at the social and political impact of Alaska's economic dependence, with chapters devoted to milestones such as the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil field and the Exxon Valdez debacle. It presents for a wide audience a compelling account of Alaska's colonial struggles and offers a key to understanding the historical roots of current environmental controversies.
About the Author
Stephen Haycox is a Professor of History at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and the author of
Alaska: An American Colony. A resident of Anchorage for more than thirty years, he has written widely on culture, Native peoples, and law and politics in the history of Alaska, the American West, and the Canadian North.
Culture and Environment in the Pacific West
A series of books that probe the relationships between cultural and environmental subjects west of the Rockies.
Back to top of page
Secure online ordering form (Orders go to our distributor - The University of Arizona Press). For a complete listing of available books, check out our catalog of books in print.
