UA Press releases new titles

October 15, 2012

The University of Alaska Press announced the publication of the four new books:

To Russia With Love: An Alaskan's Journey

Land of Extremes: A Natural History of the Arctic North Slope of Alaska

The Alutiit/Sugpiat: A Catalog of the Collections of the Kunstkamera

Caribou Herds of Northwest Alaska, 1850-2000

To Russia With Love: An Alaskan's Journey by Victor Fischer with Charles Wohlforth
As a child of German parents associated with the Russian Revolution, Victor Fischer grew up in the shadow of Hitler and Stalin, watching his friends’ parents disappear after political arrests. Eleanor Roosevelt personally engineered the Fischer family’s escape from Russia, and soon after Victor was serving in the U.S. Army in World War II and fighting against his childhood friends in the Russian and German armies. As a young adult, he went on to help shape Alaska’s map by planning towns throughout the state. This unique autobiography recounts Fischer’s earliest days in Germany, Russia, and Alaska, where he soon entered civic affairs and was elected as a delegate to the Alaska Constitutional Convention—the body responsible for establishing statehood in the territory. A move to Washington, DC, and further government appointments allowed him to witness key historic events of his era, which he also recounts here. Finally Fischer brings his memoir up to the present, describing how he has returned to Russia many times to bring the lessons of Alaska freedom and prosperity to the newly democratic states. Victor Fischer held several government positions and was on the faculty at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and Anchorage, where he was director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research. He continues to work in state policy, local government, and Alaska-Russia issues. Charles Wohlforth is a lifelong Alaska resident and prize-winning author of numerous books about Alaska. A popular lecturer, he has spoken all over the United States and overseas.

Land of Extremes: A Natural History of the Arctic North Slope of Alaska by Alexander Huryn and John Hobbie
This book is a comprehensive guide to the natural history of the North Slope, the only arctic tundra in the United States. The first section provides detailed information on climate, geology, landforms, and ecology. The second provides a guide to the identification and natural history of the common animals and plants and a primer on the human prehistory of the region from the Pleistocene through the mid-twentieth century. The appendix provides the framework for a tour of the natural history features along the Dalton Highway, a road connecting the crest of the Brooks Range with Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean, and includes mile markers where travelers may safely pull off to view geologic formations, plants, birds, mammals, and fish. Featuring hundreds of illustrations that support the clear, authoritative text, "Land of Extremes" reveals the arctic tundra as an ecosystem teeming with life. Alexander Huryn is a freshwater ecologist and a committed field naturalist who has worked extensively in the Smoky Mountains, New Zealand, Panama, the Alaska Arctic, and Iceland. John Hobbie is a senior scholar at the Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He is a founding researcher of the Toolik Field Station in Alaska and former director of the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research Project there.

The Alutiit/Sugpiat: A Catalog of the Collections of the Kunstkamera edited by by Yuri E. Berezkin and translated by Lois Fields and Katherine Arndt
This beautifully photographed book catalogs the collection of nearly five hundred Alutiiq cultural items held by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, or the Kunstkamera, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Gathered between 1780 and 1867, many of the artifacts are composed of fur, feathers, gut, hair, and other delicate materials, which prevent their transport for display or study. To document these artifacts for the public, the Kunstkamera collaborated with the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska. Together, anthropologists and members of the Alutiiq community combined the collection records with cultural knowledge and high-resolution digital imagery and worked to name objects, describe their uses, and detail the materials used in their construction. As a result, this book will provide the Alutiit, Alaskans, Russians, and the global community with lasting access to one of the oldest, most extensive ethnographic collections from the central Gulf of Alaska. Yuri E. Berezkin is the head of the American department of the Kunstkamera Museum. Lois Fields is a translator and businesswoman in Anchorage and southcentral Alaska. Katherine Arndt is the bibliographer and curator of rare books at the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Caribou Herds of Northwest Alaska, 1850-2000 By Ernest S. Burch, Jr. edited by Igor Krupnik and Jim Dau
In his final major publication, Ernest S. “Tiger” Burch, Jr. reconstructs the distribution of caribou herds in northwest Alaska using data and information from research conducted over the past several decades as well as sources that predate western science by more than one hundred years. Additionally, he explores human and natural factors that contributed to the demise and recovery of caribou and reindeer populations during this time. Burch provides an exhaustive list of published and unpublished literature and interviews that will intrigue laymen and experts alike. The unflinching assessment of the roles that humans and wolves played in the dynamics of caribou and reindeer herds will undoubtedly strike a nerve. Supplemental essays before and after the unfinished work add context about the author, the project of the book, and the importance of both. Ernest S. “Tiger” Burch, Jr. was a social anthropologist specializing in the early historical social organization of Eskimo peoples. He was an advisor to the US Arctic Research Commission and a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council. Igor Krupnik is the curator of arctic and northern ethnology at the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Jim Dau is a caribou research/management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

To order please visit www.uapress.alaska.edu or call 888.AK.BOOKS.