TABLE OF CONTENTS
General Survey Histories of Virginia
Survey histories of Virginia are important to beginning your discovery of Virginia History. Reading Virginia history books with bibliographies enables the amateur historian to drill down in a field of interest by paying attention to the writer’s sources. These can become a to-buy list for building a personal library. See Twelve Steps to a Personal Library on Virginia.
The two best general surveys are Cradle of America and Old Dominion, New Commonwealth. For an important western state perspective, emphasizing Virginia periphery from Richmond, readers should consider Otis K. Rice’s West Virginia: A History. Virginius Dabney’s Virginia: The New Dominion, although dated, is still a good read, written by a journalist and newspaper editor. Two surveys of Virginia’s history focusing on women are Changing History: Virginia Women Through Four Centuries, and Virginia Women: A Share of Honor. A survey of Virginia’s eastern plain Native Americans is available in Pocahontas’s People.
Note: Wherever possible, reviews at The Virginia Historian.com use reference material from the Journal of American History, the Journal of Southern History, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and the William and Mary Quarterly for early American scholarship.
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Cradle of America
Peter Wallenstein’s Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History, published in 2007 and updated in a revised 2014 edition is a narrative that is consciously a three-pronged narrative of political, social and educational change among Virginia’s center about Richmond, its periphery and its African-Americans.
While the Colonial era is quickly accounted for, Virginia’s central role in nation building through the presidential Virginia Dynasty and as a “Mother of States” is much more developed. The Civil War era encompasses two chapters with up to date scholarship. Chapter 18, “Alternative Pasts”, addresses how Virginians have used the state’s history for a variety of purposes. Sidebars of vignettes and biographical sketches complement the well illustrated narrative. Indexes include lists of Virginia governors, U.S. Senators, presidential election returns and census reports.
Peter Wallenstein is a history professor at Virginia Tech. Buy “Cradle of America” here at Amzon.com.
Old Dominion, New Commonwealth
In Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia, 1607-2007, Ronald L. Heinemann, along with John G. Kolp, Anthony S. Parent, Jr., and William G. Shade together wrote in their respective specialties to create another sound Virginia history timed to coincide with the Old Dominion’s quadricentennial celebration at 400 years.
Focusing on politics and power, Heinemann and his three contributors focus on the political narrative and trace the development of Virginia’s self-ruling hierarchy that fostered a model for North American development until about 1820.
It then fell into a self-defeating strategy to defend its elites until mid-20th century developments allowed recovery as a “progressively conservative society”. Thus over time, the narrative arc narrows from imperial to national to regional to parochial in scope. This book is recommended for both instructors of Virginia history and their students.
Ronald L. Heinemann is Professor Emeritus of History at Hampden-Sydney College. John G. Kolp, now retired, was Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy. Anthony S. Parent Jr. is Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University. William G. Shade is Professor Emeritus of History at Lehigh University. Buy “Old Dominion, New Commonwealth” here at Amazon.com.
West Virginia: A History
Each chapter includes recommended readings and each is supported by citations in footnotes. Important chapters deal with the statehood movement and Reconstruction, and the complexity of the state as a crossroads of North, South, East and West is presented in a scholarly fashion. Buy “West Virginia: A History here at Amazon.com.
Virginia: The New Dominion
Dabney’s book, Virginia: The New Dominion, ranks in the top Google searches for “Virginia history”. This 1972 classic, reprinted in 1989 is still a good read for its vignettes of Virginia’s historical figures in the political, economic and social context for most historical eras through the last half of the 20th century.
Although one reviewer wrote that “time and new scholarship have outdated” it (African-Americans were then respectfully referred to as Negroes), it gives Native Americans and African Americans their due as participants and principle actors on the Virginian stage in every historical era. In historical interpretative disputes Dabney gives both sides, including the good, the indifferent and the deplorable in Virginia’s story. Dabney was the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1936-1969. Buy “Virginia: The New Dominion” here at Amazon.com.
Political Survey Histories of Virginia
Grandees of Government
In Brent Tarter’s The Grandees of Government: The origins and persistence of undemocratic politics in Virginia, the Old Dominion’s traditionally undemocratic institutions are explored. Virginia’s history has been marked by resistance to democratic change compared to the histories of other states in the Union. The structure of American republicanism was a federal relationship, allowing each state to live out its own progress towards modern participatory democracy.
Social Survey Histories of Virginia
Changing History: Virginia Women
“Changing History: Virginia Women Through Four Centuries” (2013) is written by three collaborators, each in their field of expertise. Cynthia A. Kierner wrote on the colonial and early national eras, Jennifer R. Loux contributed on the 1850s through Reconstruction, and Megan Taylor Shockley essayed the late nineteenth through twentieth centuries.
This historical narrative of Virginia women looks at the lives of all Virginia women emphasizing the intersection of race, class and gender. Though emphasizing women’s empowerment and developing a progressive account of the Virginian experience, historical inequities are documented for both women of color and those of low income status. Buy “Changing History” here on Amazon.com.
Virginia Women: A Share of Honor
Suzanne Lebsock wrote Virginia Women 1600-1945: “A share of honour” (1987) three years after the landmark exhibit of a similar title at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Drawing from social and ethno history, Lebsock’s account embraces a triracial society of Native American, Caucasian and African-American, especially distinguishing the white and black experience.
Women’s organizations throughout Virginia’s history have been significant both to the participants and to the communities they served. Buy Virginia Women 1600-1945: “A share of honour” here on Amazon.com
Pocahontas’s People
Pocahontas’s People:The Powhatan Indians of Virginia through Four Centuries (1991, 1996) by Helen C. Rountree is an ethnohistorian’s survey of the Algonquins of Virginia’s coastal plain. Rountree can be so inclusive because she defines the intertribal relationships among the common language group as having a “paramount chiefdom”.
More than half of the book chronicles the years from European contact to 1700. The narrative embraces the transitions caused by declines in population, territory and military power, from independent nations to settlement among the Virginian population and life on state reservations.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, even retaining ethnic identity was challenged. Rountree uses a descriptive continuum between core groups and the fringes influenced by “outsiders”. The story is carried into contemporary Indian life and Virginian public affairs.
The book also features maps of the changing Indian settlement over Virginia’s centuries. Learn more about “Pocahontas’s People” to buy it for your personal library at Amazon.com here. Rountree’s companion volume to this is “The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture” available at Amazon.com.
“Don’t Grieve After Me”
“Don’t Grieve After Me”: The Black Experience in Virginia, 1619-1986 was edited by Philip D. Morgan in 1986. It is a collection of three chronological essays surveying“the black experience in Virginia”published by Hampton University.
Philip Morgan’s essay on “Early Virginia” covers 1619 through the 1700’s. Michael Hucles looks at the Nineteenth Century, and Sarah S. Hughes’s addresses events of the 20th century.
The volume contains many pictures from the travelling photographic exhibit “Don’t Grieve for Me” that toured Virginia February 1986-February 1987. They include cultural items of clothing and musical instruments, black labor across the state and portaits of families and individuals. Learn more to buy “Don’t Grieve for Me” for your bookshelf at Amazon.com.
General References for Virginia History
Virginia books for reference are quick indexes to further local history and biographical research on Virginia. (click on links to go to Amazon sites for purchase.)
Hornbook of Virginia History
The single volume essential to referencing all historical subjects of Virginia is The Hornbook of Virginia History: A ready reference guide to the Old Dominion’s People, Places and Past in its fourth edition, published by the Library of Virginia.
It features a short (80 page) history of Virginia, then lists and briefly describes a wonderful array of Virginia-related facts. Historic documents, Virginia office holders, Virginians in U.S. offices both elected and appointed, counties in Virginia and formerly in Virginia, colleges and state parks, as well as historical churches, houses and other landmarks.
Register of the General Assembly
For Virginia political history in its first three hundred years, A register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776-1918, and of the Constitutional Conventions (1918, 2016) by Earl Gregg Swem is a must-have on the library shelf. It shows General Assembly Sessions chronologically and their members, but it also indexes members by locality, an important tool for local historians. The Index of Members references the years of Assembly rather than page numbers.
The General Assembly of Virginia, 1619-1978
For Virginia political history spanning most of its four hundred years, The General Assembly of Virginia, 1619-1978: A bicentennial register of members (1978) by Cynthia M. Leonard, is an important reference. It is first organized by General Assembly Session in chronological order, listing House of Delegates and State Senate members of each, along with their respective officers, and noting their interruptions by the royal governor. These also include the General Assembly at Wheeling and the Unionist General Assembly at Alexandria during the Civil War. The Index provides the names of all referenced members in alphabetical order.
Historical Atlases of Virginia
Atlas of County Boundary Changes
The Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia, 1634-1895 (1987) is an out of print book available in many libraries. It is still a useful Virginia reference through much of Virginia history to comprehend the changing Virginia county boundaries and how the counties were divided to form new counties.
For local and topical historians it is crucial to accurately relating the information contained in the U.S. Census of population, industry and agriculture for each decade. For political historians, it is an important reference for the General Assembly districts apportioned for Congress, State Senate and House of Delegates. Buy “Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia” at Amazon.com here.
Virginia in Maps: Four Centuries
Virginia in maps: four centuries of settlement, growth and development (2000) is a comprehensive atlas published by the Library of Virginia mining its considerable archives. Author Richard W. Stephenson worked at the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division for forty-five years, and Marianne McKee is the map specialist at the Library of Virginia since 1983.
This “cartography of the colony and commonwealth of Virginia” is the companion volume to the Library of Virginia’s exhibit and symposium called Mapping Virginia. Chapters include essays placing maps in historical context. Mother maps used by successive map makers are featured.
They include “Westward vision: the 17th century”, “Colony to Commonwealth: the 18th century”, “Building Virginia: the Antebellum years”, and “An unfamiliar country: the Commonwealth during the Civil War”, and “Modern mapping: from saddles to satellites. The last chapter includes many state and federal maps of Virginia depicting census data, environmental surveys, forest and soil studies, and infrared photos. The digital collections of the Library of Virginia includes All Map Collection Items online. Buy “Virginia in Maps: Four Centuries” at Amazon.com here.
Virginia: Mapping the Old Dominion
Virginia: Mapping the Old Dominion State through history: rare and unusual maps from the Library of Congress (2012) is published for the Library at the Mariners’ Museum in association with the Virginia Cartographical Society. The atlas graphically depicts the changing concept of “Virginia” and its expanse before its Northwest cession during the Articles of Confederation. Among its 50 maps, it features several Civil War maps. Buy “Virginia: Mapping the Old Dominion” at Amazon.con here.
Mapping Virginia
Mapping Virginia: from the Age of Exploration to the Civil War (2012) is published by the University of Virginia Press. The volume surveys 300 maps and places them in historical context. The author is William C. Wooldridge, past president of the John Marshall Foundation and the Norfolk Historical Society. He also chaired the map support group at the Library of Virginia.
Every map in the book is owned by the Virginia Cartographical Society of Norfolk VA. In each historical era, Wooldridge identified the most original, authoritative and trend-setting maps he could find and collected them. It amounts to the most comprehensible volume of Virginia maps over its first three hundred years. Included are maps showing the partition of Virginia into regions and counties through the Civil War. Narratives in each chapter include compelling stories about the making and use of each map to place them in historical context. Buy “Mapping Virginia” at Amazon.com here.
April 30, 2021
Looks like this is going to be a hoot! Looking for my great great great grandfather’s birth parents. All I have to go on is James Stewart, born 1774 in Virginia British Colonial America. Good luck, right?
December 18, 2021
Excellent, helpful article for guiding initial research into piedmont Virginia 1700-1760 !