Going to Extremes - Softcover

McGinniss, Joe

3.96

373 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452252903 ISBN 13: 9780452252905

Publisher: Plume, 1981

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This is the fourth edition of a work that always has been controversial in Alaska. Yet, it is an important and highly readable classic work that captures a portrait frozen in time of a raw state in turmoil during the oil boom. McGinnis went north to find out if there was anything left of the "last frontier." He found "mind-bending contradictions," as a previous publisher put it--greed, waste, addictions, and racism, among other things, that contrasted with an awesome untamed natural beauty and an honest, open, and independent spirit of the people.

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Review:

"Wonderfully ironic and perceptive!" --"San Francisco Chronicle"

"Rewarding, impressive...first-person reporting at its finest." --"Christian Science Monitor"

"Terrifying and splendid" - Boston Globe

"Powerful...poignant...hilarious" - Newsweek

"Joe McGinnis did not set out to judge or explain, but only to find out what Alaska is. He has succeeded." --New York Times

"Funny, thought provoking, and relevant" - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

From the Back Cover:

When construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline created an oil boom in the late 1970s, journalist Joe McGinniss headed north to find out what if anything was left of the "last frontier." He discovered, as one reader put it, "mind-bending contradictions" - greed, waste, addictions, and racism, all of which contrasted with the vast, untamed natural beauty and the honest, open, and independent spirit of the people.

McGinniss looked at the underbelly of Alaska's boom culture. He tells a sometimes shocking, often moving story of turmoil through the perspectives of a lively assortment of bush pilots, boomers, park rangers, bartendesr, teachers, journalists, waitresses, politicians, Alaskan Natives, and an advancing legion of outsiders looking to get rich quick. "Going to Extremes" is an entertaining yet historically important book that stands as a journalistic time capsule from a time three decades ago when overwhelming changes were sweeping over Alaska.

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