Specific works by Steiner include The New Indians (1968), La Raza: The Mexican Americans (1970), The Vanishing White Man (1976), and The Ranchers: A Book of Generations (1980).
The analysis of The Vanishing White Man, looking into the cultural contrast argument about modern U.S. citizens breaking the 'circle of life' cycle and connection to the land held by prior generations of indigenous American peoples, followed-up from similar observations made in his 1968 book that he titled The New Indians.
Finding the "not sentimental" work still "sometimes moving", Kirkus Reviews declared, "As a composite picture of the vanishing rancher, the volume is [an] informative... [and] historically valuable antidote to the TV cowboy".
[4] Several years after the historian's death, Publishers Weekly remarked, Concerned with the varied ethnic groups that contributed to the spirit of individualism, freedom and expansiveness... of the area, Steiner... [wrote] about Anglos, Hispanics, Navajos and the Chinese, who built many of the railroads.
[4]Earlier in his life, Steiner had been a caustic critic of U.S. President Richard Nixon, arguing that the administration had sold out national interests in the West to private efforts by corporations.