Examines the World System of the 18th- and 19th-century Inupiaq Eskimos of Alaska, highlighting the myriad strands of their relationships among each other and with outsiders.

Accounts of specific people, places, and events add an immediate, experiential dimension to the work, complementing its theoretical apparatus and sweeping narrative scope. Provocative and comprehensive, "Alliance and Conflict" is a definitive look at the greater world of Native peoples of Northwest Alaska. Ernest S. Burch Jr. is a research associate of the Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of "The Inupiaq Eskimo Nations of Northwest Alaska" and a co-editor of "Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research".