This comprehensive history of the native and maritime fur trade in Alaska during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is without precedent. The Bering Strait formed the nexus of the circumpolar fur trade in which Russians, British, Americans, and members of fifty native nations competed and cooperated. The desire to dominate the fur trade fed the European expansion into the most remote regions of Asia and America and was an agent of massive change in these regions. Award-winning author John R. Bockstoce fills a major gap in the historiography of the area in covering the scientific, commercial, and foreign-relations implications of the northern fur trade. In addition, the book provides rare insight into the relationship between the Western powers and the Native Americans who provided them with fur, ivory, and whalebone in exchange for manufactured goods, tobacco, tea, alcohol, and hundreds of other things. But this is also the story of the enterprising individuals who energized the Alaskan fur trade and, in doing so, forever altered the region's history

The Historical Dictionary of the American Frontier covers early Euro-American exploration and development of frontiers in North America but not only the lands that would eventually be incorporated into the Unites States it also includes the multiple North American frontiers explored by Spain, France, Russia, England, and others. The focus is upon Euro-American activities in frontier exploration and development, but the roles of indigenous peoples in these processes is highlighted throughout. The history of this period is covered through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on explorers, adventurers, traders, religious orders, developers, and indigenous peoples. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the development of the American frontier.

This is the first multidisciplinary book that addresses the ethics of fur. Whatever might have been true of the past, the production of fur is now morally problematic in terms of both necessity and suffering. There is no necessity in killing animals for nonessential purposes, such as adornment, fashion, or vanity. The argument for utility simply doesn’t hold up. Alternative clothing is now readily available, enduring, and less costly. Worse still, since we know that the animals exploited are sentient, causing them suffering or making animals liable to suffering is arguably intrinsically wrong. The purpose of this volume is to open up and advance further the ethical, political, and specifically legislative endeavors now moving at pace and to encourage the anti-fur movement. That said, there is much to learn from this book about the history, culture, and political arguments for and against fur that should interest scholars and students, as well as those engaged on either side of the debate. It is not common for academics to engage with pressing and contentious moral issues, and we pay tribute to our eighteen contributors for leading the way.

Weaving U.S. history into the larger fabric of world history, the contributors to Crossing Empires de-exceptionalize the American empire, placing it in a global transimperial context. They draw attention to the breadth of U.S. entanglements with other empires to illuminate the scope and nature of American global power as it reached from the Bering Sea to Australia and East Africa to the Caribbean. With case studies ranging from the 1830s to the late twentieth century, the contributors address topics including diplomacy, governance, anticolonialism, labor, immigration, medicine, religion, and race. Their transimperial approach—whether exemplified in examinations of U.S. steel corporations partnering with British imperialists to build the Ugandan railway or the U.S. reliance on other empires in its governance of the Philippines—transcends histories of interimperial rivalries and conflicts. In so doing, the contributors illuminate the power dynamics of seemingly transnational histories and the imperial origins of contemporary globality. Contributors. Ikuko Asaka, Oliver Charbonneau, Genevieve Clutario, Anne L. Foster, Julian Go, Michel Gobat, Julie Greene, Kristin L. Hoganson, Margaret D. Jacobs, Moon-Ho Jung, Marc-William Palen, Nicole M. Phelps, Jay Sexton, John Soluri, Stephen Tuffnell

This book questions how bureaucracies conceive of, and consequently interact with, nature, and suggests that our managed public landscapes are neither entirely managed nor entirely wild, and offers several warnings about bureaucracies and bureaucratic mentality. One prominent challenge facing scientists, policymakers, environmental activists, and environmentally concerned citizens, is to recognize that human influence in the natural world is pervasive and has a long history. How we act, or choose not to act, today will continue to determine the future of the natural world. Western-style management of nature, mediated by economic rationality and state bureaucracies, may not be the best strategy to maintain environmental integrity. The question is, what kinds of human influence, conceived of in the widest possible sense, will produce ideal environments for future generations? The related question is, who gets to choose? The author approaches the problem of analyzing the mutual influence of human and natural systems from two perspectives: as an objective scholar investigating bureaucracies and natural systems from the outside, and over the last decade as an inside practitioner working in various roles in federal land management agencies developing policies and regulations involved in the control of natural systems. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of natural resource management, policy and politics, and professionals working in environmental management roles as well as policymakers involved in public policy and administration.

This rich portrait of Arctic science, informed by ethnographic fieldwork and Inuit perspective, speaks to the interplay of science and international politics. It looks at episodes of exploration, colonial control, exchanges with indigenous populations, and the process of knowledge gathering on the Arctic s natural and living resources. Andrew Stuhl s compelling narrative weaves together distinct episodes into a backstory for what some have wrongly called the unprecedented transformations in the circumpolar basin today. "Unfreezing the Arctic" is among the first books to undertake a sustained examination of scientific activity in the Arctic across the long twentieth century, and it will be warmly welcomed by anyone interested in the commingled political, economic, and social histories of transboundary regions the world over."

Globalized Peripheries examines the commodity flows and financial ties within Central and Eastern Europe in order to situate these regions as important contributors to Atlantic trade networks.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- OTHER PUBLICATIONS BY JOHN R. BOCKSTOCE -- CONTENTS -- Foreword by William Barr -- Preface -- Part 1 INTRODUCTION -- 1. Fort Ross: Founding and Abandonment, 1937 to 1948 -- 2. White Fox: From the Trapper to the Retail Customer -- Part 2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE WESTERN ARCTIC FUR TRADE TO 1914 -- 3. The Advance of the Maritime Trade in the Bering Strait Region -- 4. Expansion of the Trade in Northern Alaska and Western Arctic Canada -- Part 3 HEYDAY OF THE WESTERN ARCTIC FUR TRADE, 1914 TO 1929 -- 5. Revolution and Civil War on the Chukchi Peninsula -- 6. Growth of the Trade in Northern Alaska -- 7. Competition among Traders in Western Arctic Canada -- Part 4 DECLINE OF THE WESTERN ARCTIC FUR TRADE, 1929 TO CA. 1950 -- 8. State Ownership of the Trade on the Chukchi Peninsula -- 9. Contraction of Trade in Northern Alaska -- 10. Toward Monopoly Control in Western Arctic Canada -- Chronology -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y

Charts the rise of consumerism and the new cosmopolitan material cultures that took shape across the globe from 1500 to 1820.

Presented here is the final and most coherent section of a sweeping classic work in environmental history, The Unending Frontier. The World Hunt focuses on the commercial hunting of wildlife and its profound global impact on the environment and the early modern world economy. Tracing the massive expansion of the European quest for animal products, The World Hunt explores the fur trade in North America and Russia, cod fishing in the North Atlantic, and whaling and sealing on the world’s oceans and coastlands.