front cover of Fairbanks
Fairbanks
A Gold Rush Town That Beat the Odds
Dermot Cole
University of Alaska Press, 2008
The turbulent history of Fairbanks, Alaska is far less well-known than most urban histories. With this volume, Dermot Cole chronicles the rollicking backstory of a city that owes its beginnings to a cargo boat accident and the Klondike gold rush. Cole engagingly recounts how Fairbanks and its hardy residents survived floods, fires, harsh weather, and economic crises to see the city flourish into the prosperous transportation hub and government seat it is today. Fairbanksis ultimately a fascinating historical saga of one of the last cities to be established on the American frontier.
 
[more]

front cover of Hard Driving
Hard Driving
The 1908 Auto Race From New York to Paris
Dermot Cole
University of Alaska Press, 2020
In the winter of 1908, six cars left Times Square bound for Paris. They were embarking on a remarkable motor race across the world that would capture everyone’s imagination. In this book, Dermot Cole weaves a thrilling account of the improbable journey west from New York to Paris, the varied characters, and the nascent automobile industry. Drawing from the drivers’ journals and extensive newspaper reports, Cole details the many hardships, triangulations, and physical extremes encountered along the route as the drivers attempted to race from coast to coast, cross the Bering Strait to Russia, traverse Siberia, and onward.

Hard Driving delves beyond the riveting headlines to explore the race’s implications for global politics and diplomacy and how the automobile became a viable mode of transportation.
[more]


Send via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter