Virginia History as Southern History

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BRENT TARTER has done such a thorough and imaginative job of alerting readers to the possibilities of Virginia history that it is difficult to know what to add. His knowledge of sources is surely unmatched, his feel for the subtleties of Virginia's history unparalleled. Rather than competing with that knowledge, this essay takes another tack altogether. While Tarter builds from the ground up, suggesting topics that might grow out of records no one has fully explored, we might also think about models of study offered by recent writings in Virginia history and on other states. This essay briefly surveys some of the best work that has been done over the last ten years or so in the field of …