Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Land Use, Environment, and Social Change | 1979 | Richard White | Buy |
| 2 | The Roots of Dependency | 1983 | Richard White | Buy |
| 3 | The Middle Ground | 1991 | Richard White | Buy |
| 4 | It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own | 1991 | Richard White | Buy |
| 5 | The Frontier in American Culture | 1994 | Richard White | Buy |
| 6 | Remembering Ahanagran | 1998 | Richard White | Buy |
| 7 | Railroaded | 2011 | Richard White | Buy |
| 8 | California Exposures | 2020 | Richard White | Buy |
| 9 | Who Killed Jane Stanford? | 2022 | Richard White | Buy |
Richard White’s non-fiction spans more than four decades of historical scholarship. His early work focused on environmental and Native American history — Land Use, Environment, and Social Change (1979) and The Roots of Dependency (1983) established his reputation as a historian who took both ecology and Indigenous perspectives seriously.
His later books broadened in scope. It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own became a standard history of the American West, while Railroaded took apart the mythology of the transcontinental railroads. His most recent book, Who Killed Jane Stanford? (2022), is a true-crime investigation into the mysterious death of the Stanford University co-founder.