The Alaska Purchase: A Reading List
This bibliography provides readers with a broad understanding of the 1867 purchase of Alaska, including the period before the signing of the Treaty of Cession, the transfer ceremony when the Russian flag was replaced by the American, and the aftermath when Americans were taking control of what had been Russian America and Sitka’s residents were adapting to a new world. This list also attempts to shed light on the many peoples influenced by this dramatic event, including Alaska Native people and Alaska’s British neighbors.
Books:
Russians in Alaska, 1732-1867 by Lydia Black. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2004.
Russian-American Relations and the Sale of Alaska, 1834-1867 by Nikolai N. Bolkhovitinov. Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1996.
The Annexation of Russian America to the United States by Victor J. Farrar. Washington, DC: W.F. Roberts Co., 1937.
Seward’s Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase by Lee A. Farrow. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2016.
The Tlingit Indians in Russian America, 1741-1867 by Andrei V. Grinev and Richard L. Bland. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Tarnished Expansion: The Alaska Scandal, the Press, and Congress, 1867-1871 by Paul S. Holbo. Nashville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1983.
The Alaska Purchase and Russian-American Relations by Ronald J. Jensen. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1975.
Conflict on the Northwest Coast: American-Russian Rivalry in the Pacific Northwest, 1790-1867 by Howard I. Kushner. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975.
The Americanization of Alaska, 1867-1897 by Ted C. Hinckley. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books, 1972.
The Alaska Treaty by David H. Miller. Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1981.
“The Purchase of Russian America: Reasons and Reactions” by Richard E. Neunherz. PhD diss., University of Washington, 1975.
The Purchase of Alaska by Archibald W. Shiels. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 1967.
Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man by Walter Stahr. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.