Alaska is part of an international circumpolar North, which makes the United States an Arctic nation. Alaska is a place of Indigenous ingenuity and adaptation, a place where environmental extremes challenge the ways of living. In its more recent history, Alaska has been a place of resources and influx--a land known best for what it provides. This frontier persona, with its sourdoughs and prospectors, has not been easily shed, but Alaska today is pivotal because it represents America's North and a complex and changing Arctic.

North: Finding Place in Alaska explores the state's...