Converging Empires
Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867–1945
This stunning examination shows how the northern U.S.–Canada border, between Alaska and British Columbia, has shaped and been shaped by the people who have traversed its lands.
Description
Converging Empires examines the role the North Pacific borderlands played in the construction of race and citizenship, from 1867, when the United States acquired Russia’s interests in Alaska, through to the end of World War II. Imperial, national, provincial, territorial, reserve, and municipal borders worked together to create a dynamic legal landscape that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people negotiated in myriad ways. As they crossed from one jurisdiction to another, on both sides of the British Columbia–Alaska border, adventurers, prospectors, laborers, and settlers from Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America, and Asia made and remade themselves. This book makes a vital contribution to our understanding of North American borderlands history.