In the first full-length account of the Siberian theatre during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, N.G.O. Pereira documents the nature, causes, and consequences of the failure of the anti-Bolshevik White movement. The term "White," used in a broad political sense to contrast with the "Red" Bolsheviks, refers to all the factions in Russian society who took up arms against the Soviet government after V.I. Lenin's coup d'état in 1917. White Siberia provides a detailed history of internal politics in Siberia from 1917 to 1922 and the role of the Siberian conflict in the Revolution and Civil War.

Pereira argues that the White counter-revolution failed in Siberia because of the political weakness of the anti-Soviet governments vying for power in the region and especially because of their policies toward the Siberian peasantry. He highlights similarities and differences among their constitutional programs and ideologies, paying particular attention to the Kolchak government as the chief anti-Bolshevik force in the region.

Through his analysis of the conflict Pereira attempts to determine whether parliamentary democracy stood any real chance under the extraordinary circumstances or whether it was, as the Bolsheviks alleged, merely window-dressing hiding the real agenda of counter-revolution by military means and restoration of the ancien régime.