Virginia Reconsidered

In their introduction to Virginia Reconsidered, Kevin Hardwick and Warren Hofstra note that "Virginia's history is powerfully situated, in both the popular and the scholarly imagination." Even recalling only a handful of the many memorable figures and events of Virginia history -- George Washington, Stonewall Jackson, Patrick Henry's declamation at St. John's Church -- it is difficult to disagree. But Virginia Reconsidered,a richly diverse and innovative collection of pioneering essays, goes beyond simply recounting the exploits of famous figures or the major turning points in the state's history. Probing deep currents of historical change and the revealing experiences of lesser-known Virginians, the fourteen essays offer teachers and general readers a fuller approach to Virginia's history, one that gives important context to the state's disparate people and events. Darrett B. and Anita H. Rutman's essay on seventeenth-century Middlesex County, for example, details the decades-long effort of men like Arthur Nash to buy land and the struggle of subsequent generations to make the land into viable farms. This essay provides both a tale of economic independence and a history of early Virginia land development in miniature. Woody Holton explores the aspirations of enslaved Virginians during the revolutionary crisis, and demonstrates the connections between their hopes and actions and the decision of Virginia's planters to declare independence from Great Britain. Essays like Holton's investigate the fascinating but forgotten corners of Virginia history that are indeed its true foundationo Stephen V. Ash, University of Tennessee, Knoxvilleo Fred Arthur Bailey, Abilene Christian Universityo Thomas E. Buckley, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley/ Graduate Theological Uniono Gregory Michael Dorr, University of Alabamao J. Frederick Fausz, University of Missouri, St. Louiso Elna C. Green, Florida State Universityo Jack P. Greene, Johns Hopkins Universityo Kevin R. Hardwick, James Madison Universityo Warren R. Hofstra, Shenandoah Universityo Woody Holton, University of Richmondo Deborah A. Lee, George Mason Universityo Jan Lewis, Rutgers University, Newarko Edmund S. Morgan, Yale University, Emerituso the late Anita H. Rutmano the late Darrett B. Rutmano J. Douglas Smith, Occidental Collegeo Elizabeth R. Varon, Wellesley College