The Fishermen's Frontier

"This is a fine labour and environmental history of the Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries from before First Nations' contact with Europeans to the present. . . . He points out that, while the other elements of nature have agency in history, only humans self-consciously construct culturally and socially the meanings of their interactions with the rest of the natural world."

"This is a wonderful book. Its putative subject is a deceptively narrow one: the history of salmon fisheries in southeastern Alaska. Like the best work in environmental history, however—- a class in which the book clearly belongs—- It has important things to say about a far bigger slice of human experience than one industry in one out-of-the-way place. It will be useful for teaching and thinking about the environment, Progressive Era government, Indians, the frontier, and several other general areas."

". . . Admirably fills [a] critical gap in the history of world fisheries and of the maritime history of Alaska. . . .[Arnold's] lively narrative was born of an expertise developed not only through his doctoral research on the topic but his lived experience as a participant in the Alaskan commercial fishery."

"."Arnold’s analysis . . . provides a valuable contribution to the existing literature on the fisheries of the Northwest Coast. This is thanks in large part to its unusual emphasis on ethnic diversity and attention to the vagaries of social power. To paraphrase Arnold the story of salmon in Southeast Alaska illustrates the ways in which the 'public good' has often only ever been good for part of the public."

"David F. Arnold provides a richly nuanced, comprehensive history of the salmon fishery of southeastern Alaska. Arnold's study will be of considerable interest to scholars-to environmental historians certainly, but also to social, labor, and business historians, along with historians of the American West . . . . Fishermen's Frontier is an important book, handsomely produced with a detailed map, appropriate illustrations, graphs, endnotes, and a full bibliography. I learned a great deal from reading this study."

"In this ambitious and multifaceted work, David F. Arnold provides a sweeping history of the southeastern Alaska fishery and the people who oriented their lives around it. This book breaks down conventional boundaries by incorporating Indian, labor, and environmental history, all the while addressing some of the most important themes in western scholarship. This is no simple story of declension. Arnold is alert to nuances of historical development, and he is particularly attentive to the persistence of cultural values amidst wholesale economic and political change."

"This book is a welcome addition to a growing scholarship on fisheries and ought to attract a wide readership beyond Alaska specialists."

"Books about fish tend to be tales of decline . . . . A welcome exception is David's F. Arnold's portrait of the small-boat fishery and fishermen of Southeast Alaska. It is a fishery that is ecologically healthy, if not necessarily economically sound, and if that seems to be a paradox, that is because it is a fishing culture as varied and changeable as the fish themselves . . . . Arnold's is a thoughtful and insightful examination."

"A fascinating environmental history about the interaction between salmon and various peoples in southeast Alaska; Arnold's experience as a former commercial fisherman deepens this worthy account."

"…A welcome addition to the growing body of literature on the environmental history of the Pacific Northwest. It should be of interest to environmental historians and anthropologists, Native communities, and natural resource managers. The latter in particular could gain important insight from the actions in the past that impact the present."

"As David Arnold makes clear in his marvelous book The Fishermen's Frontier, Alaska possesses a rich and problematic history as 'the self-proclaimed last frontier.'"

"In this graceful and generous book, David Arnold shows us that salmon are not only good to eat, they are good to think with. By focusing on the history of the people in Alaska who have brought salmon to the table, he puts salmon at the center of an incredibly tangled set of human relationships—political, economic, and social. He illustrates quite wonderfully how much looking at people at work in the natural world can tell us about human society."

"A carefully researched, sprightly, and balanced account of complex interactions over time among different peoples, social customs, and the environment."

"Arnold does a great job on the background and cultural history of the Tlingit and their relationship with the sea and salmon fishing."

"Arnold has presented a complete story, chronologically, topically, and historiographically. He has managed to give the reader a unified grasp of an extraordinarily complex and often contentious element in environmental and regional history. This book is really a tour de force."

"Because The Fisherman's Frontier looks beyond the classic role of the fishery in Alaska and, instead, tells a story of fishermen and how their relationship with the natural environment changed over time, Alaskans as well as the many folk who make their living fishing northern waters will appreciate this book."