The Frontier in Alaska and the Matanuska Colony
Author: Orlando W. Miller
Publisher:
Published: 1966
Total Pages: 886
ISBN-13:
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The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project
Author: Helen Hegener
Publisher:
Published: 2014-07-08
Total Pages: 148
ISBN-13: 9780984397785
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn 1935 the U.S. Government transported 200 families from the Great Depression-stricken upper midwest to a valley of unparalleled beauty in Alaska, where they were given the chance to begin new lives as part of a federally-funded social experiment. The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, subtitled "The Remarkable History of a New Deal Experiment in Alaska," shares the enduring legacy of this all-but-forgotten chapter in American history, when the U.S. government took a direct hand in the lives of thousands of its citizens, offering Depression-distraught farm families an opportunity to start over in a far-off land with government financing and support. The Matanuska Colony was not the only government rural rehabilitation project; it was in fact only one of a multitude of complex, ambitious and controversial programs initiated under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Federal Rural Development Program, and other resettlement projects included Dyess Colony, Arkansas; Arthurdale, West Virginia; the Phoenix Homesteads in Arizona; and similar colonies in over a dozen other states. Although fraught with inevitable bureaucratic entanglements, frustrating delays, and a variety of other distractions, the Matanuska Colony actually thrived for the most part, and nearly 200 families remained to raise their families and make their permanent homes in Alaska. Highways were built, the wide Matanuska and Knik Rivers were bridged, and the town of Palmer became the center of commerce and society in the Valley. By 1948, production from the Colony Project farms provided over half of the total Alaskan agricultural products sold. Today the Matanuska Valley draws worldwide attention for its colorful agricultural heritage and its uniquely orchestrated history. This book tells the story of that history.
Cabin 135
Author: Katie Eberhart
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
Published: 2020-12-15
Total Pages: 360
ISBN-13: 1602234205
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs a young adult, Katie Eberhart moved to Cabin 135, a house on a knoll in remote Alaska. Over the next decade, growing up and growing into her home, she found herself thinking through her ever-changing ideas about aging and place, a lot of which were wrapped up closely in her experience of living in the house itself. Cabin 135 provided shelter and security, and it also offered lessons on economic disruptions and how ideas of normalcy change. In these pages, we share Eberhart’s experience of digging into the past—figuratively and, in her garden, at an archaeology site, and in a national park, literally. Every layer peeled back, we find, reveals another story, another way of thinking about nature and the past—our own and that of others. In greenhouse and garden, yard, forest, and more distant places—a beach in southeast Alaska, the Arctic coast, Swiss Alps, Iceland, and even Biosphere-2 in Arizona—Eberhart engages with the world around her, and, through it, reflects on her own experiences and journey through life. Offering a journey of wonder and curiosity, through the author’s mind, a house’s structure, and other places, Cabin 135 is a deft combination of memoir and nature writing, rich with thought and full of appreciation for—and profound concerns about—the world and our place in it.
Alaska's Place in the West
Author: Roxanne Willis
Publisher:
Published: 2010
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe first comprehensive examination of Alaskan development schemes from 1890 to the present. Focuses on five major conflicts between environmentalists and developers, from reindeer herding to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 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.
Colony Kids
Author: Heather Lehe
Publisher: Publication Consultants
Published: 2001-07-01
Total Pages: 192
ISBN-13: 1594332665
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIt's 1935, during the Great Depression, and Paul’s family is out of work and out of money. They have nothing but a little ramshackle farm in Minnesota. Now that's gone, too. Suddenly, an incredible opportunity opens up for 202 families, including Paul's, but it means moving far away, to a land few people know anything about. Will his family go? Will Paul have to leave his friends, family, and beloved dog, Rascal? Then Paul meets tomboyish Maggie and adventurous Erik, also kids of new colonists, and together they face the unique realities of living in the far north. Based on true stories, follow the trials and adventures of Paul, Maggie, and Erik as their families start over in hopes of building a new life in a strange land so far away. Will they make it?
People, Paths, and Places
Author: Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan
Publisher:
Published: 2020-01-15
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 9780998688336
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe history of the small frontier town of Moose Pass in Alaska at the turn of the century.
Apocalyptic Anxiety
Author: Anthony Aveni
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2016-05-02
Total Pages: 269
ISBN-13: 1607324717
DOWNLOAD EBOOKApocalyptic Anxiety traces the sources of American culture’s obsession with predicting and preparing for the apocalypse. Author Anthony Aveni explores why Americans take millennial claims seriously, where and how end-of-the-world predictions emerge, how they develop within a broader historical framework, and what we can learn from doomsday predictions of the past. The book begins with the Millerites, the nineteenth-century religious sect of Pastor William Miller, who used biblical calculations to predict October 22, 1844 as the date for the Second Advent of Christ. Aveni also examines several other religious and philosophical movements that have centered on apocalyptic themes—Christian millennialism, the New Age movement and the Age of Aquarius, and various other nineteenth- and early twentieth-century religious sects, concluding with a focus on the Maya mystery of 2012 and the contemporary prophets who connected the end of the world as we know it with the overturning of the Maya calendar. Apocalyptic Anxiety places these seemingly never-ending stories of the world’s end in the context of American history. This fascinating exploration of the deep historical and cultural roots of America’s voracious appetite for apocalypse will appeal to students of American history and the histories of religion and science, as well as lay readers interested in American culture and doomsday prophecies.
Leaders of the Mexican American Generation
Author: Anthony Quiroz
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2015-05-02
Total Pages: 471
ISBN-13: 1457195879
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLeaders of the Mexican American Generation explores the lives of a wide range of influential members of the US Mexican American community between 1920 and 1965 who paved the way for major changes in their social, political, and economic status within the United States. Including feminist Alice Dickerson Montemayor, San Antonio attorney Gus García, civil rights activist and scholar Ernesto Galarza, the subjects of these biographies include some of the most prominent idealists and actors of the time. Whether debating in a court of law, writing for a major newspaper, producing reports for governmental agencies, organizing workers, holding public office, or otherwise shaping space for the Mexican American identity in the United States, these subjects embody the core values and diversity of their generation. More than a chronicle of personalities who left their mark on Mexican American history, Leaders of the Mexican American Generation cements this community as a major player in the history of activism and civil rights in the United States. It is a rich collection of historical biographies that will enlighten and enliven our understanding of Mexican American history.
The Polygamy Question
Author: Janet Bennion
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2016-03-01
Total Pages: 269
ISBN-13: 0874219973
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe practice of polygamy occupies a unique place in North American history and has had a profound effect on its legal and social development. The Polygamy Question explores the ways in which indigenous and immigrant polygamy have shaped the lives of individuals, communities, and the broader societies that have engaged with it. The book also considers how polygamy challenges our traditional notions of gender and marriage and how it might be effectively regulated to comport with contemporary notions of justice. The contributors to this volume—scholars of law, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and religious studies—disentangle diverse forms of polygamy and polyamory practiced among a range of religious and national backgrounds including Mormon and Muslim. They chart the harms and benefits these models have on practicing women, children, and men, whether they are independent families or members of coherent religious groups. Contributors also address the complexities of evaluating this form of marriage and the ethical and legal issues surrounding regulation of the practice, including the pros and cons of legalization. Plural marriage is the next frontier of North American marriage law and possibly the next civil rights battlefield. Students and scholars interested in polygamy, marriage, and family will find much of interest in The Polygamy Question. Contributors include Kerry Abrams, Martha Bailey, Lori Beaman, Janet Bennion, Jonathan Cowden, Shoshana Grossbard, Melanie Heath, Debra Majeed, Rose McDermott, Sarah Song, and Maura Irene Strassberg.
The Fishermen's Frontier
Author: David F. Arnold
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2009-11-17
Total Pages: 307
ISBN-13: 0295989750
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn The Fishermen's Frontier, David Arnold examines the economic, social, cultural, and political context in which salmon have been harvested in southeast Alaska over the past 250 years. He starts with the aboriginal fishery, in which Native fishers lived in close connection with salmon ecosystems and developed rituals and lifeways that reflected their intimacy. The transformation of the salmon fishery in southeastern Alaska from an aboriginal resource to an industrial commodity has been fraught with historical ironies. Tribal peoples -- usually considered egalitarian and communal in nature -- managed their fisheries with a strict notion of property rights, while Euro-Americans -- so vested in the notion of property and ownership -- established a common-property fishery when they arrived in the late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, federal conservation officials tried to rationalize the fishery by "improving" upon nature and promoting economic efficiency, but their uncritical embrace of scientific planning and their disregard for local knowledge degraded salmon habitat and encouraged a backlash from small-boat fishermen, who clung to their "irrational" ways. Meanwhile, Indian and white commercial fishermen engaged in identical labors, but established vastly different work cultures and identities based on competing notions of work and nature. Arnold concludes with a sobering analysis of the threats to present-day fishing cultures by forces beyond their control. However, the salmon fishery in southeastern Alaska is still very much alive, entangling salmon, fishermen, industrialists, scientists, and consumers in a living web of biological and human activity that has continued for thousands of years.
