Virginia Books

In her "Reminiscences" dictated in her eighty-third year, the last year of her life, Mrs. Samuels draws a memorable picture of the old log, weather-boarded house, built by Great Grandfather Van Nort about 1787, in which she and her brother, John Williams, two years older, spent the earliest years of their childhood.

It was a life of abundance: servants to attend to one's slightest wish, open hospitality and a warm welcome for the guest. In that life, whites and blacks lived close together.

Katie and G. B. Samuels met and fell in love around 1860, just before the Civil War ... these are their letters.

A fascinating look at the lives of a family living through the destruction and devastation of the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley.

This absoloute Civil War site traveler book is fantastic in helping you locate and enjoy virtually every Civil war site in Virginia. Robertson smartly divides VA. into geographic regions
where he maps out the locations of famous CW sites with not only directions but brief description sof the events. With this book I found the famous Drewry's Bluff defense site located above the James river 7 miles below Richmond where the Confederates stopped the monitor and it's fleet and in 1864 played a key role in stoping the Union advance to take Petersburg and Richmond. A remote and beautiful earthwork over the river. Obviously, the great sites of Manasas and Richmond are noted but
off the beaten path locations are best. The site of Turner Ashby's death putside of Harrisonburg off a dirt road into the woods, the site of the Rifle pits and trenches of the North Anna campaign, the star shaped eathern fort in Smithfield, the remote twin on the opposite side of the James in Fort Eustis Army Base, Fort Early an earthwork in Lynchburg, the huge trenches in Newport News City Park, the Jackson valley Campaign and on. A great road trip book and I hope he will have an updated edition with more off road sites. Caution is needed regarding areas that have been developed since the initial printing. Original access roads may have been changed or renamed such as at Yellow Tavern where the connecting street, now called Old Francis Rd., no longer crosses U.S. 1. Now you must go further north and take a right (east) on VA. Center Parkway (North of 295 overpass) from U.S. 1 to old Telegraph Road, then travel south, .1 mile past Old Francis Rd to find Stuart's death site.

These comics are enjoyed by our entire family. Our 10 year old son can't seem to put them down as the illustrations and content are clever and entertaining. We love how Bently Boyd brings history to life in a fun, creative and easy reading style. After my son is finished reading he can't wait to share what he read with the entire family. We have acquired the entire set of Chester Comix with Content Series and love them all. These make a GREAT gift for anyone of any age or even for teachers as they are an awesome learning tool. This is a definate must have for the entire family. ENJOY!

This is a great easy to understand overview of African History in that it is decently comprehensive, and doesn't bog the reader down in a million names and dates. The best feature of this book is its focus on Africa, for it's own sake, instead of in relation to others. It also talks more about what the people were doing than kings and other heads of states, and how people interacted together, in such forms as trade, cultural difussion, and yes, wars.

While dry in parts, as it is in fact a textbook, it makes African history accessible to one who hasn't gotten enough of it. I recommend it highly.

This is a great pictorial book chalk full of historic photographs of Clarksburg, West Virginia. The text and photo captions are clear and informative. I found "Clarksburg - Images of America: West Virginia" an incredible resource and highly recommend it to any enthusiast of Americana, Photography, History, and Sociology... and for anyone and everyone who likes pictorial books!

Despite the mixed review from Booklist, I would argue that this book is excellent at doing what it does. Brackett is an excellent writer, and her descriptions are vivid and thorough. Of course any book about literature is subjective. This one, however, does just what it claims to do.

Finely detailed in research and detailed photos of an oten overlooked period of American furniture.

Between 1910 and 1930, one million people moved into the coal fields of central Appalachia. The biggest concentration of the half of them who were African Americans moved into West Virginia's southwestern counties, especially McDowell county where my mother was born a Black miner's daughter. Yet, when folk think of West Virginia and the Appalachians, these Black folk are ignored or forgotten. When people think of the battles of the coal miner's union, they neglect the question of Black folk. Likewise, to understand African American history properly, it is important to understand the struggles and life experience of such significant sections of the black proletariat like these Black miners, the Black autoworkers of Detroit, or the Black steel workers of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Chicago.

Trotter provides an exhaustive study of the whole process of Black proletarians moving to West Virginia's coal fields, the construction of Black communities, and the lives of African Americans in the mining camps and mining towns. He presents a very good picture of the conflicting forces involved including the mine owners and the state and local governments they controlled, white American and immigrant miners, the bureaucrats who ran the UMWA, as well as the black middle class that grew up in West Virginia.

What interests me is the way he shows that the mine companies increased segregation and racism in West Virginia in an attempt to stem the unity of Black miners with white miners in the many battles that took place over unionization. He is also quite good at showing that the rising African American middle class came to serve the interests of the mine owners and the white ruling class in attempting to dampen the militancy of Black miners on both the working class and black rights fronts.

What is interesting is the glimpses Trotter gives of the potential power of Black miners in West Virgnia. He gives one instance where an African American was lynched were hundreds of Black miners marched on the coal camp where the lynching took place.

It is unfortunate that his study ends in 1930 so he does not cover the successful battles in the 1930s by the UMWA that organized many of these miners and provided one of the basis for the mass organizing campaigns of the CIO.

This book is very near and dear to my heart as I am a descendant of R.M. Ward. I grew up hearing these stories and I also knew the author Richard Chase who was a family friend. I went to sleep almost every night with one of the Jack Tales as my bed time story and always asked for" just one more daddy". I am glad that this book is still in print so that I might pass on these beloved stories to my two children in hopes that they will in turn pass them on to their children. These "Tall Tales" will keep your children asking for "just one more".

This paperback textbook was required for a college course. Since I could purchase a new copy of the book for over $20 less than the college bookstore was selling it for and I wanted to get it as quickly as possible, I paid the extra $20 for overnight delivery. The book came the next day, as promised, was packed well and arrived in excellent condition. Plus, even with the extra shipping charge, I came out ahead of the game.