Richard White (born 1947) is an American historian, two-time winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, past President of the

Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...

, and the author of books about the American West, Native American history, the United States in the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...

, railroads, capitalism, and

environmental history Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history first emerged in the United States out of th ...

. He is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History Emeritus at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. Earlier in his career, he taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, and

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...

. He received his bachelor's degree from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the ed ...

, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. White was founding director of Stanford'
Spatial History Project
which implements digital technologies and analyses to illuminate patterns and anomalies for research purposes. He was chosen for the

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

in 1995, and was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2016.

Works

*''Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, Washington''. University of Washington Press, 1979. (hardback); (1992 paperback). *''The Roots of Dependency: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change Among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos''. University of Nebraska Press, 1983. ; (1988 paperback). *''The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815''. Cambridge University Press, 1991. (hardback); (paperback). *''"It's Your Misfortune and None of my Own": A History of the American West''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. . *''The Frontier in American Culture: An Exhibition at the Newberry Library, August 26, 1994-January 7, 1995'', with Patricia Nelson Limerick, edited by James Grossman. University of California, 1994. ; (paperback). *''The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River.'' New York: Hill and Wang, 1996. . *''Remembering Ahanagran: A History of Stories''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998. . *"Corporations, Corruption, and the Modern Lobby: A Gilded Age Story of the West and the South in Washington, D.C.", ''Southern Spaces'', 16 April 2009
online
*''Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. (cloth). * ''The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896'' (

Oxford History of the United States The Oxford History of the United States (1982–present) is an ongoing multi-volume narrative history of the United States published by Oxford University Press. Volumes Series overview Woodward editorship The series originated in the 1950s wi ...

, 2017). * ''California Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History'', with photographs by Jesse Amble White. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2020. (cloth). * ''Who Killed Jane Stanford: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University'' W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.

Awards and honors

Francis Parkman Prize
for best book on American history (''The Middle Ground''), 1992 * Albert J. Beveridge Award for best English-language book on American history (''The Middle Ground''), 1992
Albert B. Corey Prize
for best book on U.S.-Canadian history (''The Middle Ground''), 1992

for book on history of race relations in the United States (''The Middle Ground''), 1992
Pulitzer Prize Nominated Finalist
''The Middle Ground'', 1992, and ''Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America'', 2011

for ''"It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own"'', 1992 * MacArthur Foundation fellowship, 1995 * Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History), ''Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America'', 2011

Notes

External links

"Bibliography of historian Richard White"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Richard 1947 births Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Environmental historians Historians of the United States Historians of race relations University of California, Santa Cruz alumni University of Washington alumni University of Washington faculty University of Utah faculty Michigan State University faculty Stanford University Department of History faculty MacArthur Fellows Historians of the American West Members of the American Philosophical Society American male non-fiction writers