Russians in Alaska, 1732-1867

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Summary: Enhanced with fold-out maps and color illustrations
Review: In Russians In Alaska 1732-1867, Russian American scholar, historian, and anthropologist Lydia T. Black (Professor Emerita, University of Alaska, Fairbanks) has drawn upon her extensive archival research (including documents only recently made available to academia) to write a comprehensive historical overview of the Russian presence in Alaska. Professor Black's work is a well-founded challenge to traditional perspectives on the Russian period in Alaska as a time of ruthless exploitation of Native Americans and Alaska natural resources. Including the harsher aspects of the Russian occupation, Professor Black reveals the complexity of relations Between Russians and Native peoples as she chronicles the lives of the ordinary men and women who established Russian outposts in Alaska who carried to this northern land their Orthodox faith, Russian language, distinctive architecture, and place names. Also available in a trade paperback format, Russians In Alaska 1732-1867 is wonderfully enhanced with fold-out maps and color illustrations.