Richard White

Richard White (born May 28, 1947) is an American historian who is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History Emeritus at Stanford University. He is a two-time winner of the Francis Parkman Prize and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History, both for his books The Middle Ground and Railroaded (2011). He is a past president of the Organization of American Historians and is the author of books about the American West, Native American history, the United States in the Gilded Age, railroads, capitalism, and environmental history. He was chosen for the MacArthur Fellows Program in 1995, and he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2016.

Early life and education White was born on May 28, 1947. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1969), and his MA (1972) and PhD (1975) from the University of Washington.

Career White taught at Michigan State University (1976–1983), the University of Utah (1983–1990), and the University of Washington (1990–1998) before joining Stanford University as the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History in 1998.

He was chosen for the MacArthur Fellows Program in 1995, and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society 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 (1992, 2012) and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History (1992, 2012), past president of the Organization of American Historians (2006–2007), and the author of books about the American West, Native American history, the United States in the Gilded Age, railroads, capitalism, and environmental history.

Selected 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, 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 Pulitzer Prize for History Finalist, The Middle Ground, 1992 James A. Rawley Prize for book on history of race relations in the United States (The Middle Ground), 1992 Western Heritage Award for "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own", 1992 MacArthur Foundation fellowship, 1995 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History), Railroaded, 2011 Francis Parkman Prize for best book on American history (Railroaded), 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History Finalist, Railroaded, 2012