Czar Of Alaska

After surviving a hurricane in the Caribbean, ivory poachers in East Africa, and a Cairo crime syndicate racing up the Nile, zoologist Jack MacGregor, his paleontologist wife, Mavis, and children, Chris, Ryan, and Heather, head to the wilderness of Alaska and encounter an unusual new threat from ecoterrorists. As in all MacGregor Family Adventure Series novels, the MacGregors are once again caught in a web of intriguing characters full of danger, deception, and plenty of techno-thrilling surprises. Three Russian Orthodox priests seek the religious artifact the Cross of Charlemagne, while their rivals, a rogue Vatican priest and a renowned Polish archaeologist, are following a trail across Alaska left by early Russian settlers, hoping to reach the treasure first. Meanwhile, an ominous international team of ecoterrorists armed with state-of-the-art weapons are determined to prevent oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and get rid of Jack MacGregor once and for all. Featuring an entertaining cast of characters including the MacGregor teens' new friend, Roy Nageak, an Inupiat native, Czar of Alaska is fast paced and action packed. Vivid descriptions of the exhilarating Alaskan mountains create the setting for a harrowing encounter with a grizzly bear, daring dogsled and helicopter excursions, and plenty of sibling rivalry and family challenges. With the aid of a local historian, the Russian Orthodox priests, a member of the native Alutiq tribe, and a seasoned FBI agent, the MacGregors strive to recover lost treasures and unwittingly find themselves trapped in a situation that has them fighting for their lives. As with all of Richard Trout's books in the MacGregor Family Adventure Series, the book begins with a description of a historic event, putting readers in the throes of an a.d. 788 battle in the Bavarian Alps that sets the drama of the Cross of Charlemagne in motion.

A compact, fast-moving social and political history that brings to vivid life the story of Alaska's early days. Its name was not Alaska until we bought it in 1867. Until then it was Russian America. Americans at large are apt to forget that our 49th state, Alaska, was first explored and settled by the Russians. They left a definite mark on the vast Northwest. -- Amazon.

The Alaska Purchase—denounced at the time as “Seward’s Folly” but now seen as a masterstroke—is well known in American history. But few know the rest of the story. This book aims to correct that. Lee Farrow offers here a detailed account of just what the Alaska Purchase was, how it came about, its impact at the time, and more. Farrow shows why both America and Russia had plenty of good reasons to want the sale to occur, including Russia’s desire to let go of an unprofitable, hard-to-manage colony and the belief in the United States that securing Alaska could help the nation gain control of British Columbia and generate closer trade ties with Asia . Farrow also delves into the implications of the deal for foreign policy and international diplomacy far beyond Russia and the United States at a moment when the global balance of power was in question. A thorough, readable retelling of a story we only think we know, Seward’s Folly will become the standard book on the Alaska Purchase.

The Russian Empire once extended deep into America: in 1818 Russia's furthest outposts were in California and Hawaii. The dreamer behind this great Imperial vision was Nikolai Rezanov ? diplomat, adventurer, courtier, millionaire and gambler. His quest to plant Russian colonies from Siberia to California led him to San Francisco, where he was captivated by Conchita, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Spanish Governor, who embodied his dreams of both love and empire. From the glittering court of Catherine the Great to the wilds of the New World, Matthews conjures a brilliantly original portrait of one of Russia's most eccentric Empire-builders.

The story of the world's largest, longest, and best financed scientific expedition of all time, triumphantly successful, gruesomely tragic, and never before fully told The immense 18th-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire's annual revenue. Until now recorded only in academic works, this 10-year venture, led by the legendary Danish captain Vitus Bering and including scientists, artists, mariners, soldiers, and laborers, discovered Alaska, opened the Pacific fur trade, and led to fame, shipwreck, and "one of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history.

When ex-army officer Adam Scott's father passes away he leaves Adam a puzzling letter that leads him to a Swiss bank and a priceless 14th century icon.

This definitive work, the crown jewel in the distinguished career of Russian America scholar Lydia T. Black, presents a comprehensive overview of the Russian presence in Alaska. Drawing on extensive archival research and employing documents only recently made available to scholars, Black shows how Russian expansion was the culmination of centuries of social and economic change. Black s work challenges the standard perspective on the Russian period in Alaska as a time of unbridled exploitation of Native inhabitants and natural resources. Without glossing over the harsher aspects of the period, Black acknowledges the complexity of relations between Russians and Native peoples. She chronicles the lives of ordinary men and women the merchants and naval officers, laborers and clergy who established Russian outposts in Alaska. These early colonists carried with them the Orthodox faith and the Russian language; their legacy endures in architecture and place names from Baranof Island to the Pribilofs. This deluxe volume features fold-out maps and color illustrations of rare paintings and sketches from Russian, American, Japanese, and European sources many have never before been published. An invaluable source for historians and anthropologists, this accessible volume brings to life a dynamic period in Russian and Alaskan history. A tribute to Black s life as a scholar and educator, "Russians in Alaska" will become a classic in the field."

Originally published in 1958, Ice Palace is Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Ferber's classic and mighty novel about the taming of a great northern wilderness—Alaska. Czar Kennedy came to Alaska for money and power, Thor Storm for a dream. This is the story of their struggle, over a long half-century, for the future of Alaska and the destiny of their beautiful, rebellious granddaughter, Christine, a courageous woman who must make a choice that will shape the destiny of a new generation. Above all, it is the glowing and eloquent tale of Alaska itself—the last, great American frontier.