In this Virginia History Blog, we examine titles related to the Civil War in Virginia. Confederate Army in Virginia. “The American Civil War” is a military history of the conflict, “The View From the Ground” relates the soldier experience, and “Why Confederates Fought” explores family and nation in Civil War Virginia. Virginia and Virginians. The...
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In this Virginia History Blog on the onset of the Civil War, we examine the run-up to secession in “Year of Meteors” portending dire omens at the 1860 Presidential Election, and “Age of Strict Construction” showing the growth of federal power that Lincoln stood to inherit. “Fragile Fabric of Union” addresses the origins of the...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we look at elements of the Virginia Antebellum society. Progress in a slave society is examined in “Railroads in the Old South”. White male culture is explored in “Military Education and the Emerging Middle Class” and in Brothers of a Vow” about secret fraternal orders. The slaveholder’s perspective of slavery...
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In this Virginia History Blog on five titles related to Antebellum literature and thought, we begin by looking at “The Origins of Proslavery Christianity” that documents developments among Virginia’s white and black evangelicals from colonial times into the antebellum period. “Religion and the Making of Nat Turner’s Virginia” develops the conflicts within its white and...
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In this Virginia History Blog on four Civil War titles, we review “On to Petersburg” about the Overland Campaign in Virginia, “Midnight in America” concerning soldiers dreams and their interpretations, “Sex and the Civil War” on the introduction of pornography to the army and its opposition, and “Stepdaughters of History” about Southern women who were...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we look at five titles on the Antebellum Civil War Era. “A Nation Without Borders” studies the international setting in an age of 19th century civil wars. “Luxurious Citizens” addresses the politics of consumption in the 1800s. “Owning Ideas” considers the development of intellectual property. Before “Dred Scott” analyzes American...
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In this Virginia History Blog on New Nation Diplomacy and War, two titles are about diplomacy. “Revolutionary Negotiations” traces American diplomacy relating to the European Westphalia system from the Continental Congress through the “Jackson Doctrine” to the Monroe Doctrine. “Borderlines and Borderlands” addresses Madison’s belief that the law of nations entitled the U.S. to acquire...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we look at two titles relating to citizenship and constitution making, a legal history, and two biographies of early antislavery Virginians. “The Citizen Revolution” shows the change from “subjects” to “citizens. “Ratification” describes the debates set before the public in the state Federal Conventions. “Aggressive Nationalism” shows economic policy of...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we look at titles related to Thomas Jefferson and women. “Seeing Jefferson Anew” investigates Jefferson socially, ideologically, politically and historiographically. “The Women Jefferson Loved” describes Jefferson’s mother, sisters, wife, daughters, mistress and granddaughters. “The Hemmingses of Monticello” narrates the remarkable continuity of a Jefferson slave family over three generations of...
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This Virginia History Blog considers three titles of Thomas Jefferson Biography. “The Road to Monticello” is an intellectual history of Jefferson’s connections to American philosophy, literature and education. “Flight from Monticello” is set during Jefferson’s governorship in the Revolution. “The Jeffersons at Shadwell” is a two-generational study of their Piedmont plantation. The Road to Monticello...
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