WSU Press

Summer 2018

Captain Cook’s Final Voyage: The Untold Story from the Journals of James Burney and Henry Roberts

Edited by James K. Barnett

WSU Press: 2017

The British Navy was outfitting ships for war against the upstart American colonies when Captain James Cook sailed from Plymouth Harbor in July 1776 for his third and final voyage. The mariner sought the elusive Northwest Passage via the west coast of North America, but the ensuing three-and-a-half-year expedition didn’t turn out as planned.

Much has been written about Cook, particularly … » More …

Summer 2018

Protest on Trial: The Seattle 7 Conspiracy

Kit Bakke

WSU Press: 2018

It’s December 1970, and surprise witness Horace “Red” Parker is mumbling his way through his testimony. The prosecutor has to keep telling the self-made activist infiltrator to speak up. The defense attorney keeps objecting to Parker’s constant inferrals of what the defendants must have been thinking as they organized the anti-Vietnam War protest they’re on trial for. Which, as Kit Bakke points out, is ironic, because … » More …

Winter 2017

Peace Weavers: Uniting the Salish Coast through Cross-Cultural Marriages

Candace Wellman ’68

WSU Press: 2017

Clara Tennant Selhameten was born the daughter of Lummi tribal leader in what became Whatcom County, and eventually married John Tennant, the son of a famous Methodist minister around 1859. Tennant established the first permanent farm in the region, on Lummi land. In later years, she and John traveled as missionaries and built many churches. It was clear that the couple were true partners in both spiritual … » More …

Fall 2015

Barnyards and Birkenstocks: Why Farmers and Environmentalists Need Each Other

A book by WSU Press tackles issues confronting both the agriculture industry and environmental activists. » More ...

Fall 2015

Native Trees of Western Washington

New book from WSU forester and published by WSU Press introduces trees throughout Western Washington. » More ...

Spring 2014

A Yankee on Puget Sound

Karen L. Johnson ’78 and Dennis M. Larsen ’68

WSU Press, 2013

Pioneer Edward Jay Allen lived near Olympia when the Oregon Territory was split in two and federal politicians elected to name the new territory Washington, rejecting the local suggestion of Columbia. Allen helped survey a wagon road over Naches Pass, a backcountry route still in use by those who favor mud and adversity over miles per gallon and speed. Future Union general George B. McClellan shared a cabin with Allen one summer, leading to a fast friendship a decade before … » More …

Spring 2014

Civility and Democracy in America: A Reasonable Understanding

Cornell W. Clayton and Richard Elgar

WSU Press, 2012

This collection of essays from WSU professors and other scholars takes a hard look at the historical and contemporary state of civility in the country, probing the complexities and the causes of the current “crisis.”

The articles cover not just history, but religion, architecture, ethics, philosophy, and media studies, as the writers discuss the context of incivility and heated rhetoric surrounding major issues of social movements, civil rights, immigration, and other matters long affecting American democracy.

The collection of essays emerged from a 2011 conference on civility … » More …

Summer 2011

Henry Grosshans—1921-2010

Henry Grosshans came to Washington State College in 1952, engaging in an active academic and intellectual life for three decades, after which he retired to Shoreline, Washington. Grosshans died last October, at the age of 89.

He was for many of those years editor of the University Press, raising its prestige and profile not only through the titles published, but through the journals he attracted to the press.

Before coming to WSC, Grosshans was a Rhodes Scholar, studying for two years at Oxford University between brief stints on the faculty at Kansas State and Bowling Green University. During World War II, he participated … » More …