The scholarly examination of American history through the lens of the Red Dead Redemption video game series, titled Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past, transitioned to a paperback format on November 25, 2025. This new edition follows the initial hardcover and digital ebook release in 2024 by St. Martin's Press. The paperback is priced at $19, a reduction from the original hardcover's $30 price point, intended to expand readership among history enthusiasts and gamers.
Tore C. Olsson, an award-winning historian and a professor at the University of Tennessee, conceived the book after developing an innovative college course. This course, which began in 2021, focused on American History spanning the years 1899 to 1911, utilizing the Red Dead Redemption titles as the primary pedagogical tool. Olsson, who also serves as the Director of Graduate Studies in History at the University of Tennessee, aims to make rigorous historical scholarship accessible to the public.
The approximately 288-page book analyzes the intense American violence that occurred between 1870 and 1920. It asserts that the primary catalysts for bloodshed were not solely romanticized outlaw narratives, but rather deep-seated disputes rooted in capitalism and racial tensions across regions including the West, the Deep South, and Appalachia. The original 2024 release included an audiobook narrated by Roger Clark, the voice actor for the character Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Olsson designed the work to function as an introductory gateway, drawing parallels to educational tools like Assassin's Creed Discovery Tours, to guide players toward authentic historical realities embedded within the digital landscape of the games, which are set in 1911 and 1899 respectively. The book has received positive reception, including a review from The Wall Street Journal describing it as "Innovative and highly engaging."
Professor Olsson continues his unique intersection of popular culture and academic study by preparing a new course for the Spring 2026 term. Titled Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games, this class will scrutinize the major social, cultural, political, and economic shifts that redefined the United States following Ronald Reagan's 1980 election, continuing his methodology of using major Rockstar Games titles to explore complex historical periods.
