Often referred to as the Last Frontier, Alaska has captivated the imagination of many over the centuries. Western writer Borneman (A Climbing Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners) has done an excellent job of describing why this fascination exists. Separated into nine chronologically based chapters, the text explores a recurring theme in Alaska's development: conflict among disparate groups over how the land would be used for personal enrichment. Starting with the various 18th- and 19th-century European powers who sought to colonize Alaska and ending with current struggles over oil development in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, engaging chapters detail the important events and those who helped shape Alaska's history. Of note are the fascinating sections on Alaska's important contributions to the Allied victory in World War II and the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. This expansive, comprehensive history is recommended for all libraries.-Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Libs., IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A panoramic history of Alaska, encyclopedic but as handy as a guidebook, from western historian Borneman. This is the work of a man smitten by Alaska, its sheer chronological, geological, and geographical scale, the ever-changing newness of it all-and the ever-competing arguments over the nature and use of the land. What biases he carries, Borneman keeps in check: he is pushing no agenda here but instead projecting a wish for an understanding of the evolution of Alaska from all the perspectives and forces involved. This means he tries to provide a sweep of background material before elucidating a topic, be it Alaskan Native land vis-`-vis timber and fishing rights; the influence of missionaries; the purpose of the early US Army surveys; or the mountaineering exploits of the Duke of Abruzzi, Terry Moore, and Brad Washburn. He does, however, hold a strong opinion about the abysmal "relocation" of the Aleuts during WWII, when their towns were razed and the military treated them with the same "decided tone of racism that was being applied to Americans of Japanese ancestry." Still, Borneman is comfortable with the political frays that have always been on the Alaskan agenda, from the move toward statehood and the jousting between the Russians and the advocates of the Monroe Doctrine, on through John Muir and Gifford Pinchot and the Forest Service's notion of mixed use, to the future of drilling for oil Wildlife Reserve. He's particularly happy when he gets his teeth into a good tale, and Alaska is full of them: the splendid ones, like the Iditarod and the salmon runs and the bush pilots; the unavoidable, such as the earthquake of 1964; and the plain bad, like the Exxon Valdez. A sensitive background to the 49th state, capably finessing conflicts, then shifting gears to take the narrative off on a pleasing storytelling spin. (maps)

The last American frontier, Alaska packs into 615,230 square miles the American saga of explorers and hunters, followed first by miners and soldiers, then homesteaders and tourists making their way into the wilderness. Borneman, a historian and lawyer who has produced multimedia programs for National Geographic, is at his best when he writes about these heroes who battled treacherous weather and terrain. At the same time, he stages their adventures against the backdrop of military and political events. Though some newspapers derided Lincoln's secretary of state, William Seward, for purchasing the territory as a strategic outpost in 1867, his decision proved prescient during WWII, when Alaska proved useful in patrolling the northern Pacific, and especially during the Cold War, when it allowed us to keep watch over communist countries in Asia. Until it obtained statehood in 1959, however, Alaska remained a colonial possession where the U.S. government controlled access to natural resources on the land, in the water and under the surface. Even now, 41% of the state belongs to national reserves; and the controversies continue among conservationists, fisheries, and timber and oil companies. The chapters on Alaska's environment demonstrate the balance of textbook history and storytelling that makes this informative book so readable. On occasion, Borneman becomes mired in local history, such as the quarrel over the state capital, when he might have instead devoted these pages to the Natives, whom he leaves hovering in the background until they suddenly leap forward as activists in the 1960s. He might also have included illustrations. Mirroring the Alaskan landscape, the book's scale and blocks of unbroken text can be daunting. 10 maps. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved