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
West Virginia: A History (second edition 2017) by professor Otis K. Rice of the West Virginia Institute of Technology is particularly useful to Virginia readers. It dedicates two-thirds of the volume to the common Virginia history before West Virginia statehood in 1863. Only unlike most general Virginia histories, this is from a western state perspective. Balancing political, economic and cultural development, it fully considers the early development of western Virginia that later separates with 40% of Virginia’s white population.
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
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
The General Assembly of Virginia, 1619-1978
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 !