Hi world - I'm not very versed at all in the history of the Western US (~1860-1900) and looking for some starting points. Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne was going to be my starting point - what I'm finding is good deep dives on particular tribes or individuals but wondering if there's any kind of narrative that ties it all together. I had thought to use railroad expansion and the social impacts of that as a spine to organize the research - just wondering if anyone has recommendations. If *not* - then any other works definitely recommended to make sure I don't miss something.
*Edit: to specify further, the ideal work would be something of western railroad expansion (financing, political economy potentially) and social impacts (both on migration patterns and definitely impact on native populations).
Hi there anyone interested in recommending things to OP! While you might have a title to share, this is still a thread on /r/AskHistorians, and we still want the replies here to be to an /r/AskHistorians standard - presumably, OP would have asked at /r/history or /r/askreddit if they wanted a non-specialist opinion. So give us some indication why the thing you're recommending is valuable, trustworthy, or applicable! Posts that provide no context for why you're recommending a particular podcast/book/novel/documentary/etc, and which aren't backed up by a historian-level knowledge on the accuracy and stance of the piece, will be removed.