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Virginia History & Culture
The Fight for Fairfax
Private Citizens and Public PolicymakingThe Fight for Fairfax, first published in 2009, presents the story of a group of local citizens in Fairfax County, Virginia, and their efforts over half a century to invent a place that would be more than a Washington, D.C., suburb. Told from their point of view, the book describes the group’s... More
Fulfilling the Promise
Virginia Commonwealth University and the City of Richmond, 1968–2009Founded in Richmond in 1968, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) began with a mission to build a university to serve a city emerging from the era of urban crisis—desegregation, white flight, political conflict, and economic decline. With the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and the... More
Virginians and Their Histories
Histories of Virginia have traditionally traced the same significant but narrow lines, overlooking whole swathes of human experience crucial to an understanding of the commonwealth. With Virginians and Their Histories, Brent Tarter presents a fresh, new interpretive narrative that incorporates the... More
Virginia Beer
A Guide from Colonial Days to Craft's Golden AgeThe days of choosing between a handful of imports and a convenience store six-pack are long gone. The beer landscape in America has changed dramatically in the twenty-first century, as the nation has experienced an explosion in craft beer brewing and consumption. Nowhere is this truer than in... More
Virginia Wine
Four Centuries of ChangeNo state can claim a longer history of experimenting with and promoting viticulture than Virginia--nor does any state’s history demonstrate a more astounding record of initial failure and ultimate success.An essential addition to any wine lover’s library, Virginia Wine: Four Centuries of Change... More
Picturing Harrisonburg
Visions of a Shenandoah Valley City since 1828Picturing Harrisonburg provides the most vibrant examination available of the history of the Virginia city, once a frontier town founded in the 1730s but now a burgeoning city centrally located in one of America’s most beloved, historic, and beautiful regions—the Shenandoah Valley. Taking... More
Mr. Jefferson's Telescope
A History of the University of Virginia in One Hundred ObjectsThomas Jefferson considered the University of Virginia to be among his finest achievements--a living monument to his artistic and intellectual ambitions. Now, on the occasion of the University's bicentennial, Brendan Wolfe has assembled one hundred objects that, brought together in one fascinating... More
Society Ties
A History of the Jefferson Society and Student Life at the University of VirginiaSociety Ties is a history of the University of Virginia’s oldest student organization, the Jefferson Society. Founded in 1825, the Society has counted the likes of Woodrow Wilson and Edgar Allan Poe among its membership and continues to be one of the largest and most active student organizations... More
The Dooleys of Richmond
An Irish Immigrant Family in the Old and New SouthThe Dooleys of Richmond is the biography of two generations of a dynamic and philanthropic immigrant family in the urban South. While most Irish Catholic immigrants who poured into the region in the nineteenth century were poor and illiterate, John and Sarah Dooley were affluent and well educated... More
Oh, Shenandoah
Paintings of the Historic Valley and RiverThe Shenandoah Valley is widely renowned for its beauty and its idyllic landscape of farms, fields, historic towns, and Civil War battlefields. Framed to the east and west by the majestic Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, the region is defined by the river made famous in the 1882 song "Oh,... More
The Five George Masons
A Founding Father, a patriot in the Revolutionary War, a delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention, and one of the driving forces behind the creation of the U.S. Bill of Rights, George Mason (1725-1792) worked passionately and diligently throughout his life, both as a private citizen... More
Hidden History
African American Cemeteries in Central VirginiaIn Hidden History, Lynn Rainville travels through the forgotten African American cemeteries of central Virginia to recover information crucial to the stories of the black families who lived and worked there for over two hundred years. The subjects of Rainville’s research are not statesmen or... More
Dare to Dream
How James Madison University Became Coed and Shocked the Basketball WorldIn 1971, Madison College was a small-town teachers college with around 3,000 students, most of them female. To elevate the college’s visibility and to appeal immediately to males, new president Dr. Ronald E. Carrier sought to build a solid men’s collegiate athletic program. He hired a young,... More
The Architecture of Historic Rockbridge
This abundantly illustrated, wide-ranging volume captures the rich and diverse architectural history of Rockbridge County, Virginia, including the two cities of Lexington and Buena Vista. While recent books have documented the area’s social history, this book fills a long-recognized void by tracing... More
Old Southampton
Politics and Society in a Virginia County, 1834-1869Nat Turner's 1831 slave insurrection made Virginia's Southampton County notorious. Gradually, however, the bloody spectacle receded from national memory.Although the timeless rhythms of rural life resumed after the insurrection, Southampton could not escape the forces of change. From the Age of... More
OpenGrounds at the University of Virginia
Link, Learn, Lead, LiveOpenGrounds is a University of Virginia initiative that builds on a legacy of innovation to create new programs, places, and partnerships; to catalyze new approaches to important challenges; and to inspire new collaborations across and beyond the "Grounds." The university was founded as a... More
Rot, Riot, and Rebellion
Mr. Jefferson's Struggle to Save the University That Changed AmericaThomas Jefferson had a radical dream for higher education. Designed to become the first modern public university, the University of Virginia was envisioned as a liberal campus with no religious affiliation, with elective courses and student self-government. Nearly two centuries after the university... More
Journey on the James
Three Weeks through the Heart of VirginiaFrom its beginnings as a trickle of icy water in Virginia's northwest corner to its miles-wide mouth at Hampton Roads, the James River has witnessed more recorded history than any other feature of the American landscape -- as home to the continent's first successful English settlement, highway for... More
The Tangierman's Lament
and Other Tales of VirginiaGo where the story is--that’s one tenet of journalism Earl Swift has had little trouble living up to. In two decades of covering the commonwealth, Swift has hiked, canoed--even spelunked--a singular path through Virginia. He has also stopped and listened. This collection brings together some twenty... More
The Grandees of Government
The Origins and Persistence of Undemocratic Politics in VirginiaFrom the formation of the first institutions of representative government and the use of slavery in the seventeenth century through the American Revolution, the Civil War, the civil rights movement, and into the twenty-first century, Virginia’s history has been marked by obstacles to democratic... More
"Answer at Once"
Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park, 1934-1938With the Commonwealth of Virginia's Public Park Condemnation Act of 1928, the state surveyed for and acquired three thousand tracts of land that would become Shenandoah National Park. The Commonwealth condemned the homes of five hundred families so that their land could be "donated" to the federal... More
Never Ask Permission
Elisabeth Scott Bocock of Richmond, A Memoir by Mary Buford HitzSome cities, through hardship or glory or a combination of both, produce extraordinary women. Richmond in the early twentieth century, dominated by its prominent families and still haunted by the ghosts of its Confederate past, produced a galaxy of such characters, including Ellen Glasgow, Mary... More
Richmond
The Story of a CityRichmond: The Story of a City chronicles the growth of this historic community over nearly four centuries from its founding in the early 1700s by William Byrd II to its most recent urban and suburban developments. In this expanded edition Virginius Dabney updates his history by examining the... More
The University of Virginia
A Pictorial HistoryIn the nearly two centuries since the first building’s completion in Thomas Jefferson’s academical village, programs and facilities at the University of Virginia have been continually expanded and updated. This second edition of Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s The University of Virginia: A Pictorial... More
The Great Valley Road of Virginia
Shenandoah Landscapes from Prehistory to the PresentThe Great Valley Road of Virginia chronicles the story of one of America’s oldest, most historic, and most geographically significant roads. Emphasized throughout the chapters is a concern for landscape character and the connection of the land to the people who traveled the road and to permanent... More