Richard White (born 1947) is an American historian who is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History Emeritus at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Earlier in his career, he taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

, and

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

. White 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

, and his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the University of Washington. He was chosen for the

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

in 1995, and was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2016. White was founding director of Stanford's Spatial History Project, which implements digital technologies and analyses to illuminate patterns and anomalies for research purposes. He is a two-time winner of the

Francis Parkman Prize The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of Ameri ...

, 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 incl ...

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

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

, railroads, capitalism, and

environmental history Environmental history is the study of Human impact on the environment, 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 ...

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 Patricia Nelson Limerick (born May 17, 1951) is an American historian, author, lecturer and teacher, considered to be one of the leading historians of the American West. Early life and education Limerick is the daughter of Grant and Patricia Ne ...

, 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 is an ongoing multivolume narrative history of the United States published by Oxford University Press. Conceived in the 1950s and launched in 1961 under the co-editorship of historians Richard Hofstadter a ...

, 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

for best book on American history (''The Middle Ground''), 1992 *

Albert J. Beveridge Award The Albert J. Beveridge Award is awarded by the American Historical Association (AHA) for the best English-language book on American history (United States, Canada, or Latin America) from 1492 to the present. It was established on a biennial basis ...

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
James A. Rawley Prize
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 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

fellowship, 1995 *

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), his ...

(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