His specialties include Lewis & Clark, exploration & migration, Indian white relations, fur trade, and other western themes. He is the author of the award-winning William Clark: Indian Diplomat (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008). Buckley has co-authored volumes on Meriwether Lewis and Zebulon Pike. His current book project is A Fur Trade History of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies (Plains Histories series, Texas Tech University Press).