Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America

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Douglas & McIntyre, 2010 - Arctic regions - 540 pages
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Winner of the 2011 Lionel Gelber Prize
Winner of the 2011 J. W. Dafoe Book Prize
Nominated for the 2010 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize
Nominated for the 2011 Sir John A. Macdonald Prize
Nominated for the Lela Common Book Prize for Canadian History
Based on Shelagh Grant's groundbreaking archival research and drawing on her reputation as a leading historian in the field, "Polar Imperative" is a compelling overview of the historical claims of sovereignty over this continent's polar regions. This engaging, timely history examines the unfolding implications of major climate changes; the impact of resource exploitation on the indigenous peoples; the current high-stakes game for control over the adjacent waters of Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland; the events, issues and strategies that have influenced claims to authority over the lands and waters of the North American Arctic, from the arrival of the first inhabitants around 3,000 BCE to the present; and sovereignty from a comparative point of view within North America and parallel situations in the European and Asian Arctic.
Polar Imperative is a definitive reference on Arctic history and will redefine North Americans' understanding of the sovereign rights and responsibilities of this northernmost region.
 

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Contents

Defining the Parameters
5
First Inhabitants 3000 bc1500 ad
25
Merchants and Monarchs 15001814
55
The British Admiralty and the Arctic 181853
97
Purchase of Alaska 181867
115
Sale of Ruperts Land 1870
135
British Transfer of the Arctic Islands 18701900
155
Perfecting Sovereign Titles 190038
193
Postwar and Cold War 194691
285
Arctic Oil and Aboriginal Rights 19602004
339
Beginning of a New Era
405
Conflicts and Challenges
435
notes
471
selected bibliography
511
index
519
Copyright

World War ii 193945
247

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About the author (2010)

Shelagh D. Grant is the author of the Clio Award-winning Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet 1923; Sovereignty or Security? Government Policy in the Canadian North, 1936-1950; and more recently, Mittimatalik-Pond Inlet: A History, translated into Inuktitut. She is an adjunct professor in the Canadian Studies Program and research associate of the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies at Trent University, and she lives in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

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