Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The Contest among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade
"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...
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With expert scholarship and a keen eye for detail, John R. Bockstoce provides the first analysis of the historic competition between the Russians, British, and Americans for control of the Bering Strait fur trade.
Foreword Felipe Fernandez-Armesto xiiiPreface xviiA Note on Names xixAcknowledgments xxiPart 1 The origins of the fur Trade in the Bering Strait Region 11 The Opening of the Maritime Fur Trade at Bering Strait 32 Trapping and Hunting for Marketable Furs 413 The Russian Expansion toward Alaska 704 Marketing the Furs 103Part 2 The Russian-British Rivalry in Northern Alaska 1155 The Russians Move North 1176 The British Response 1297 Mikhailovsky Redoubt 1678 The Expeditions to Point Barrow 1799 Zagoskin's Expedition to the Yukon 19310 The British Expansion Northwestward 203Part 3 Foreign fleets Reach Bering Strait 22511 The Search for Sir John Franklin 22712 Trading Activities from 1848 to the Sale of Russian America 26013 Chaos and Transformation in the Latter Third of the Nineteenth Century 29614 The Last Decades of the Nineteenth Century 32415 End of the Century 355Appendix The Introduction of Firearms to the Eskimos of the Bering Strait Region 361Chronology 363Glossary 371Notes 375Bibliography 411Index 447
\ American Historical Review“An important and epoch-making book.”--American Historical Review\ \ \ \ \ \ Anchorage Daily News"A comprehensive history of the Native and maritime fur trade in Alaska during the 18th and 19th centuries."—Gretchen Weiss, Anchorage Daily News\ — Gretchen Weiss\ \ \ \ North American Society for Oceanic HistoryWinner of the 2009 John Lyman Book Award in the category of U.S. Maritime History\ — 2009 John Lyman Book Award\ \ \ \ \ \ Polar LibrariesRecipient of the 2010 William Mills Prize for non-fiction books sponsored by Polar Libraries.\ — 2010 William Mills Prize\ \ \ \ \ \ The Arctic Book Review“This book is as near perfect as I think any book about the fur trade can be. . . .[It] is a gold mine of information for historians, geographers, ethnologists, and antiquarians. It shows what can be done by a perceptive scholar who has complete command of the subject and of the English language.”--The Arctic Book Review\ \ \ \ \ \ Western Historical Quarterly"It is not easy in a short review to do justice to a book as comprehensive and magisterial as this one...Furs and Frontiers in the Far North is a fascinating, impeccably researched, and engagingly written work of scholarship."--William R. Morrison, Western Historical Quarterly\ — William R. Morrison\ \ \
