Alaska's Place in the West: From the Last Frontier to the Last Great Wilderness
- ISBN-10
- 0700617485
- ISBN-13
- 9780700617487
- Category
- Social Science / Sociology / General
- Pages
- 186
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2010
- Publisher
- University Press of Kansas
- Author
- Roxanne Willis
Description
From Sarah Palin's surprising rise to political stardom to recurring environmental battles over oil drilling in the arctic and public work projects like the Bridge to Nowhere, the remote state of Alaska continues to occupy center stage in the national spotlight. Yet for most Americans the history of this sparsely populated region remains a vast unknown. Roxanne Willis takes readers behind common and simplistic representations of the state to explore the rich history and extreme diversity of a land that cannot easily be pigeonholed into typical American conceptions about place
Alaska's story is usually confined to regional history books, and in many American history texts, the state simply disappears after the Klondike gold rush. Willis's book marks the first comprehensive examination of Alaskan development schemes from 1890 to the present, connecting these plans to the changing priorities of American culture and politics. She examines competing definitions of Alaska—from a "Last Frontier" meant to be exploited to a "Last Wilderness" to be protected at all costs—and explains how the contemporary Alaskan landscape is a result of this ongoing struggle to define this mythic state's place in the American West.
Willis focuses on five historic battles between environmentalists and developers: the Alaska Native reindeer herding industry, the New Deal homesteader program in the Matanuska Colony, the construction of the Alaska Highway, the political dispute over the Rampart Dam, and the ongoing struggles over the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. She presents these case histories in clear language that will engage general readers while using new historical analysis that will appeal to scholars of environmental history and the American West. The result is an effective introduction to the historical origins of current political conflicts in Alaska.
Transcending the typical regional histories of the state, Willis's study shows how Alaska development schemes have affected the history of American development more broadly, with conclusions that will be useful to anyone interested in environment and development issues in America or the circumpolar North—including a consideration of Alaska as the new frontier in global climate change. By showing why Alaska continues to resonate in the American imagination, Willis's book situates the forty-ninth state within the environmental movement, within the definition of the American West, and within American culture as a whole.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Childhood in Global Perspective
By Karen Wells... may be taken in by other family members or they may , as is increasingly the case in Africa , establish their own households , with the eldest children acting as heads of households ( Audemard and Vignikin 2006 ; Robson et al .
-
Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment
By Karen Kay Kirst-Ashman, Charles ZastrowIn this best-selling text BY social workers and FOR social workers, Charles Zastrow and Karen K. Kirst-Ashman, nationally prominent social work educators and authors, guide studetns in assessing and evaluating how individuals function ...
-
Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment
By Karen Kay Kirst-Ashman, Charles ZastrowKiev , A. ( 1980 , September ) . The courage to live . Cosmopolitan , pp . 301-308 . Kim , N. , Stanton , B. , Li , X. , Dickersin , K. , & Galbraith , J. ( 1997 ) . Effectiveness of the 40 adolescent AIDS - risk reduction interventions ...
-
Mapping the Social Landscape: Readings in Sociology
By Susan J. FergusonCharrière , H. 1969. Papillon . Robert Lafont . ... 6 NOT OUR KIND OF GIRL ELAINE BELL KAPLAN Social research is concerned with the definition and assessment of social phenomena . Many social concepts such as teen pregnancy are ...
-
淡定的爱, 优雅的活
By （美）卡耐基, 张艾佳行走世间，唯有淡定不破：遇事不慌、遇人不躁，拥有淡定、优雅的心，你，就可以重生！——美国心灵教父戴尔 ...
-
Feminism and the Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas
By Karen KampwirthBooth, John. 1985. The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution. Boulder: Westview. Booth, John, and Thomas W. Walker. 1989. Understanding Central America. Boulder: Westview Borge, Tomás. 1984. Carlos, the Dawn Ls No Longer ...
-
Social Structure and Law: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
By William M. EvanReaders will profit from studying this volume which sets forth a rationale for theoretical and empirical contributions to the sociology of law.
-
Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality
By Nell Irvin Painter, Homi K. Bhabha, Kimberlé CrenshawAs I wrote in a recent tribute to Justice Marshall: There appears to be a deliberate retrenchment by a majority of the current Supreme Court on many basic issues of human rights that Thurgood Marshall advocated and that the Warren and ...
-
The Civilizing Process
By Norbert EliasThe Civilizing Process
-
Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America
By Robert HughesCriticizes Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, Jessie Helms, and Ronald Reagan, political correctness, academic obsessions with theory, the art world, American infrastructure, and other targets