Welcome to the Virginia History Blog. Titles selected for book reviews are taken from the bibliographies of scholarly, peer reviewed Virginia history surveys. Titles related to the topic and recent publications by authors are also included.
Additional books are chosen from those reviewed in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.
After the books are reviewed in the Blog, they are redistributed among historical eras at The Virginia Historian.com: (1) Early and Late Colonial 1600-1763, (2) Revolution-Constitutional-New Nation 1750-1824, (3) Antebellum, Civil War-Reconstruction 1820-1883, (4) Gilded Age, New South, 20th Century 1880-present.
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George Washington as soldier, husband and host
In this Virginia History Blog we look at five titles related to George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington. “General George Washington” examines Washington’s military career, and “The Glorious Struggle” focuses on his correspondence during his command of the Continental Army in the Revolution. “Washington’s God” looks at Washington’s personal faith practice, his theology and...
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Founders, merchants and backcountry
This Virginia History Blog recaps five titles on the Founders, merchants and backcountry Virginia. “American Creation” is a top-down political survey of Revolution and Constitution eras. “George Mason, Forgotten Founder” is a biography of the Virginian Founder. “Buying into the World of Goods” explains the development of a marketing economy in Bedford and Franklin County...
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Revolutionary Virginia – Spring 2018 Journals
In this Virginia History Blog on Revolutionary Virginia, we look at recent reviews beginning with “Patrick Henry: Proclaiming a Revolution” which features his oratory. George Washington is treated in two titles, “George Washington, Nationalist” focuses on Washington’s thirteen year career at the formation of the Union, while “George Washington, Wonder of the Age” surveys his...
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Colonial Indian and Civil Wars
This Virginia History Blog assembles four reviews related to Early and Late Colonial Virginia warfare, both English colonial civil war and Anglo-Amerindian conflicts. For those interested in reading more deeply into mid-1600s Virginia, beyond the previously reviewed Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia by Warren M. Billings which was one of our...
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Early Colonial Cultures in Virginia
This Virginia History Blog introduces Early Colonial Cultures in Virginia by featuring two titles relating the cultural and political interactions of settlers and Algonquin tribes near and far, “Brothers among Nations” and “White People, Indians and Highlanders”. The infrastructure of early settlement is examined in two titles, “Backcountry Towns of Colonial Virginia” and “Courthouses of...
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Early Colonial Contact and Culture in Virginia
The Virginia History Blog today looks at Early Colonial contact and culture Virginia through the reviews of five titles. “A Briefe and True Report” is a facsimile of a 1590 Latin edition with English translation and illustrated contemporary lithographs, reporting initial contact with native Algonquins, plants and animals found in the Chesapeake region. “Deadly Politics...
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Colonial Era Virginia – Spring 2018 Journals
In this Virginia History Blog, we begin our first digest of reviews from current journals about Colonial Era Virginia. Two are environmental histories, “A Cold Welcome” about the Little Ice Age, and “Wild by Nature” about marketed indigenous Southeast wildlife. “Esteemed Bookes of Lawe” concerns legal libraries of colonial Virginia and the training of the...
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Jamestown in Virginia
At the four-hundred year anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia several books celebrated the event, and the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography featured a review article of a number of them altogether. Several are still readily available from their publishers. Two have previously been reviewed here as among the our Virginia Survey Bibliographies...
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New South and Progressive Virginia
In this installment of New South and Progressive Virginia, we conclude our Phase I reviews of 300+ titles surveyed. These were taken from the bibliographies in three Virginia history surveys covering its 400+ year history. Two were published in 2007 and are currently used in Virginia university courses, and one bibliography is from another’s draft...
Civil War and Reconstruction Virginia
In this recap of the Civil War and Reconstruction Virginia, we begin with two titles addressing the role of slaves in the Civil War, first from a Union perspective in “The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation”, then from the rebel point of view in “Confederate Slave Impressment”. Two social histories chronicling the immediate...
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