ABSTRACT
The decade of the fifties appeared to many Alaskans as a time in which economic, social, and political maturity had been achieved. In contrast, the forties had been a decade of war and peace, cold and hot wars with the related ups and downs in Military Alaska, ending with a final upward thrust in population and economic development. This had been a time of constant flux during which it was impossible to take meaningful bearings on trends or identify emerging forms because of the lack of any firm footing from which to make observations. The upward thrust experienced during the forties continued steeply during the first two or three years of the fifties, began to lose momentum, and leveled off during the final half of the period. The experience of these ten years, therefore, provides a basis for some analysis of the nature of contemporary Alaska and speculation on its future.
