Richard White

At the end of the Civil War the leaders and citizens of the victorious North envisioned the country's future as a free-labor republic, with a homogenous citizenry, both Black and White....

Richard White shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age that shows history to be rooted in failure and success....

An acclaimed book and widely acknowledged classic, The Middle Ground steps outside the simple stories of Indian-white relations—stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural persistence. It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning....

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." This indelible quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance applies especially well to California, where legend has so thoroughly become fact that it is visible in everyday landscapes. Our foremost historian of the West...