Episode Details

These are the works I read to study and learn about the history of Virginia, from the earliest days of colonization into the modern, postbellum era. Collectively, these are a good way of learning about practically every aspect of the Old Dominion over that time period, from managing a plantation and Cavalier culture, to the mechanics of politics in the state and Westward expansion.

In this video, I discuss which ones are best for getting a general history of the state, learning about the development of the Virginia Gentry, understanding plantation life and the economics of the plantations, understanding what set Virginia apart from the rest of the South, and getting into learning about the great men of the state's history. I'll also cover which ones are terrible, and should be avoided.

Note: I am an Amazon affiliate. If you would like to help support the show at no cost to yourself, you can do so by using the link I have attached for each book, if that book is one you would like to read.

A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War By Thomas Fleming, https://amzn.to/4oeeRqs

A "Topping People": The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790 By Emory G. Evans, https://amzn.to/4o7ILN0

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America By David Hackett Fischer, https://amzn.to/4fHA89R

Behold Virginia: The Fifth Crown By George F. Willison, https://amzn.to/3RZUalS

Colonial Virginia: Its People and Customs By Mary Newton Stanard, https://amzn.to/4e2nT4W

Colonial Virginia, Volume I: The Tidewater Period, 1607-1710 By Richard L. Morton, https://amzn.to/3SjTUy8

Colonial Virginia, Volume II: Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710-1763 By Richard L. Morton, https://amzn.to/3SjTUy8

Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I and II By Philip Alexander Bruce, https://amzn.to/4vsQ4RP

Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 By Gordon S. Wood, https://amzn.to/4xcNUaO

First Families: The Making of an American Aristocracy By Nathaniel Burt, https://amzn.to/4dWhGaJ

Gentlemen Freeholders: Political Practices in Washington's Virginia By Charles S. Sydnor, https://amzn.to/4dZsPaZ

George Washington, Entrepreneur: How Our Founding Father's Private Business Pursuits Changed America and the World By John Berlau, https://amzn.to/4ui7PCq

Lee By Clifford Dowdey, https://amzn.to/4o7H7Lk

Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees of Virginia By Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr., https://amzn.to/43dYssh

Myths & Realities: Societies of the Colonial South By Carl Bridenbaugh, https://amzn.to/4dMbKlV

Old Virginia: The Pursuit of a Pastoral Ideal by Robert S. Tilton and William M. S. Rasmussen, https://amzn.to/4e2mueG

Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia: Or the Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion By Thomas J. Wertenbaker, https://amzn.to/43efFll

Robert Carter of Nomini Hall: A Virginia Tobacco Planter of