A pictorial retrospective containing stories of visionary pioneers, scientists, and the leaders who have been a part of developing Alaska's sustainable commercial fisheries management principles.

Last Among Equals is the first detailed account of Hawaii's quest for statehood. It is a story of struggle and accommodation, of how Hawaii was gradually absorbed into the politcal, economic, and ideological structures of American life. It also recounts the complex process that came into play when the states of the Union were confronted with the difficulty of granting admission to a non-contiguous territory with an overwhelmingly non-Caucasian population. More than any previous study of modern Hawaii, this book explains why Hawaii's legitimate claims to equality and autonomy as a state were frustrated for more than half a century. Last Among Equals is sure to remain a standard reference for modern Hawaiian and American political historians. As important, it will require a reevaluation of two commonly held myths: that of racial harmony in Hawaii and that of automatic equality under the Constitution of the United States.

Considers (85) S. 49, (85) S. 35.

The story of the thirteen-year effort to add the 49th and 50th states to the Union.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Ernest Gruening governor of territorial Alaska. What followed were twenty historic years that changed the face of North America when Alaska became a state in 1959. Using unpublished archival materials, Claus-M. Naske follows Gruening from Puerto Rico to the Pacific Islands and from Alaska to Antarctica. As governor, Gruening devoted himself to the economic development of Alaska and fought discrimination against Alaska Natives. In 1958, he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he opposed the Vietnam War and earned a reputation for his liberal views on civil rights. Gruening's letters and memos reveal the challenges that he faced every day as an activist governor and senator. As a man of talent, ambition, and ego, Gruening met conflict head-on and gained the respect of Alaskans for his honesty and plain speech. The life of Ernest Gruening is a personal account of Alaska statehood as well as a political odyssey through the twentieth century.

In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us through Alaska’s fierce terrain and history, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling present. As his characters struggle for survival, Michener weaves together the exciting high points of Alaska’s story: its brutal origins; the American acquisition; the gold rush; the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry; the arduous construction of the Alcan Highway, undertaken to defend the territory during World War II. A spellbinding portrait of a human community fighting to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic saga of the enduring spirit of a land and its people. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for Alaska “Few will escape the allure of the land and people [Michener] describes. . . . Alaska takes the reader on a journey through one of the bleakest, richest, most foreboding, and highly inviting territories in our Republic, if not the world. . . . The characters that Michener creates are bigger than life.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Always the master of exhaustive historical research, Michener tracks the settling of Alaska [in] vividly detailed scenes and well-developed characters.”—Boston Herald “Michener is still, sentence for sentence, writing’s fastest attention grabber.”—The New York Times

Originally published in 1958, Ice Palace is Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Ferber's classic and mighty novel about the taming of a great northern wilderness—Alaska. Czar Kennedy came to Alaska for money and power, Thor Storm for a dream. This is the story of their struggle, over a long half-century, for the future of Alaska and the destiny of their beautiful, rebellious granddaughter, Christine, a courageous woman who must make a choice that will shape the destiny of a new generation. Above all, it is the glowing and eloquent tale of Alaska itself—the last, great American frontier.