Description
Virginia, like America, has been an inspiration as well as a place; a locale where both material ambitions and spiritual aspirations have found form and voice amid dedication, disappointment, contradiction, and rededication. Virginia has nealy always been central to the American story, from the first burst of English colonization literature in the sixteenth century, through its cultural importance, economic supremacy, and political leadership in British colonial America, the early American republic and the Southern Confederacy, to its emergence as a home for a growing federal government and military in the late twentieth century. This project is a comprehensive history of the commonwealth with a narrative accessible to interested lay readers and students, while incorporating and synthesizing recent scholarship and adding an independent historical perspective. It devotes considerable space to precolonial history and Native Americans, the role of men and women, the development, influence, disintegration and legacy of slavery, as well as the modern quest to achieve a successful multiracial society. Throughout, it places Virginia within an American context, analyzing ways in which Virginia's story reflects themes and issues central to the American story. Fall 1993, Academic Year 2000-2001
