We begin our blog on Gilded Age Virginia 1880-1900 with “Promise of the New South” for the non-elite amidst rapid industrialization, and “Paradox of Southern Progressivism” to explain the rise of urban upper middle class reformers, beginning with prohibition efforts in the late 1800s. “Appalachia” focuses on the predominantly white yet still bi-racial region including...
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In our blog on Reconstruction in Virginia part two, we begin looking at the passage of the 14th amendment in the former Confederate states in”No Easy Walk to Freedom”. The development of social, economic and political community in black Hampton, Virginia is described in “Freedom’s First Generation”. And race as a social construction is explored...
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We begin Reconstruction in Virginia part one with a survey of the period, 1863-1877 in “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution”. Virginia’s Reconstruction was extended by Readjusters to 1883 as described in “Two Paths to the New South”. The politics of race in post emancipation Virginia is studied in “Before Jim Crow”. “Shattered Nation” investigates the intellectual...
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Our third blog on the Civil War in Virginia considers a biographical focus, social history and local histories during the Civil War. Starting with Confederate General “Robert E. Lee”, the review is paired with bibliographical references to five other prominent Civil War Virginians. “Southern Lady, Yankee Spy” is both biography and social history. Individual biographies are...
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In part two of Civil War in Virginia, we investigate the war issues of slavery and emancipation on both sides, Union and Confederate. In part three, we focus on Virginians and local histories of the war. We begin our look at Civil War slavery and emancipation with “Without Consent or Contract” that surveys the rise...
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We begin our first of three blogs on the Civil War in Virginia with reviews on five books in print and listing seven out of print books available online. Additional reviews on books about the Civil War are available at Antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction under the subheading “Wars in Virginia, 1820-1883”. “Battle Cry of Freedom”...
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This second revised blog on “Secession comes to Virginia” begins with a review of the “Roots of Secession” in slave-holding Virginia. “Road to Disunion” investigates the divisions among Southerners. “Apostles of Disunion” describes the appeals of the Deep South commissioners to border state secessionist conventions, “Showdown in Virginia” relates the delegate debate in convention, and...
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We begin our survey of Secession comes to Virginia with three books related to the American mind as the crisis of secession and civil war approached. “The Slave Power” describes Southern state domination of U.S. national government first in the Congressional Caucus system, and then in the Second Party System of nominating conventions and nationalized...
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The best of Virginia’s antebellum social histories include six titles from a focus of local, ethnic, gender and religious investigation. We also include seven titles from bibliographies citing out of print books. Social and cultural histories include “American City, Southern Place” investigating antebellum Richmond, and “The Virginia Germans” looks at the two major influxes of a...
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This blog focuses on Virginia’s Antebellum economy. Like other border states, it grew apart from the Deep South mono-agricultural economies before the Civil War, though not at the frenetic changes of the magnitude seen in the North. To begin we look at Virginia’s “Urban Growth in the Age of Sectionalism” and at the comparative economic...
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