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.

Wonderfully ironic and perceptive!
    --San Francisco Chronicle

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

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joe McGinniss started his career in journalism at the Worcester Telegram, Philadelphia Inquirer, and LA Herald-Examiner before becoming an overnight success with his first book, "The Selling of the President," which landed him on the NY Times bestseller list at age 26. He went on to write 10 more books, several of them bestsellers, and he currently is working on a book tentatively titled, "Sarah Palin's Year of Living Dangerously," to be published in 2011 by Broadway/Random House. He has five children and, at last count, seven grandchildren. McGinniss lives in Massachusetts with his partner, the writer and editor Nancy Doherty.