Richard White books

Richard White is an American historian and MacArthur Fellow, best known for The Middle Ground, Railroaded, and The Republic for Which It Stands. He is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History Emeritus at Stanford University.

Cambridge Studies in North American Indian History Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Middle Ground 1991 Buy
The American Revolution in Indian Country 1995 Buy
A New Order of Things 1995 Buy
Faith and Boundaries 2005 Buy
Property and Dispossession 2018 Buy

Critical Issue Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Long, Bitter Trail 1993 Buy
The Specter of Communism 1994 Buy
The Organic Machine 1995 Buy
Lyndon Johnson’s War 1997 Buy

Non-Fiction

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Land Use, Environment, and Social Change 1979 Buy
The Roots of Dependency 1983 Buy
The Middle Ground 1991 Buy
It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own 1991 Buy
The Frontier in American Culture 1994 Buy
Remembering Ahanagran 1998 Buy
Railroaded 2011 Buy
California Exposures 2020 Buy
Who Killed Jane Stanford? 2022 Buy

The Oxford History of the United States Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The American People in the Great Depression: Freedom from Fear, Part One 1973 Buy
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 1982 Buy
Battle Cry of Freedom 1988 Buy
Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 1996 Buy
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 1999 Buy
The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part Two 2003 Buy
Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore 2005 Buy
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815 - 1848 2007 Buy
From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 2008 Buy
Empire of Liberty 2009 Buy
The American Century and Beyond: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1893-2014 2015 Buy
Years of Peril and Ambition: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1776-1921 2015 Buy
The Republic for Which It Stands 2017 Buy

Richard White is one of the most influential American historians of the past half century. His work spans the history of the American West, Native American cultures, environmental change, and the growth of American capitalism. The Middle Ground (1991), his study of relations between Native Americans and European settlers in the Great Lakes region, reshaped how historians think about cultural encounter and exchange.

His later books include Railroaded, a critical look at the transcontinental railroads, and The Republic for Which It Stands, his contribution to the Oxford History of the United States covering Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. A MacArthur Fellow and Stanford professor emeritus, White has spent decades combining archival research with fresh interpretations of familiar American stories.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Richard White written?

Richard White has written 31 books across four series.

What was Richard White's first book?

Richard White’s first book is The American People in the Great Depression: Freedom from Fear, Part One, published in 1973.

What awards has Richard White received?

White received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 and has won the Francis Parkman Prize twice. The Middle Ground and Railroaded were both Pulitzer Prize finalists, and Railroaded won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History. He has also served as president of the Organization of American Historians.

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