Answer:
One major strength of recent research is its breadth of coverage, both geographical and temporal. It reinforces the notions that (1) the Russian-American Company's activities in what is now the United States were not confined to sea otter hunting along Alaska's outer coast, from the Aleutian Islands to the Alexander archipelago and (2) the company's economic focus and relationship to the Russian government, Alaskan native peoples, and its own employees changed over time. With regard to the first point, new studies have examined the company's operations in the Alaskan mainland interior (where they bore less resemblance to the stereotypical company-sponsored sea otter hunt than to activities of the Hudson's Bay Company in what is now Canada), and reexamined both its brief attempt to establish a foothold in the Hawaiian Islands and its thirty-year presence at Ross settlement in California (e.g., Arndt 1996; Mills 1996; Lightfoot et al. 1991, 1997). With regard to the second point, several works have taken particular care to distinguish continuities and changes in the company's policies throughout the period of its existence (e.g., Dean 1993, 1994, 1995; Dmytryshyn 1994), but, because of the amount of research required to sustain such an approach, it remains an exception rather than the rule.
