Going to Extremes

<p>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.</p><p> </p><p>McGinniss focused mostly on the underbelly of Alaska's boom culture. He tells a sometimes shocking often moving story of turmoil through the perspective of a lively assortment of bush pilots boomers park rangers bartenders teachers journalists waitresses politicians Alaskan Native and an advancing legion of outsiders looking to get rich quick. </p>