Virginia: A History (States and the Nation Series)

ISBN: 0393301370

Author: Rubin D. Louis

Condition: New

When Virginias Royal Governor, William Gooch, sailed for England in 1749, he left behind a state of affairs in which all seemed ordered and tranquil and-to those whose opinions mattered-reasonably permanent. It was the first such time in Virginias history but, writes author Louis Rubin, it would not be the last. From the beginning, Virginians have styled their government a conservative commonwealth, seeking stability amid change and often fashioning change to fit their concept of what Virginia-and America-should be like. In the eighteenth century Golden Age, Virginia was a world of broad acres and country gentlemen. To preserve the world, Virginians led a revolution and helped to found a government that they believed would secure their childrens future. In the name of old and tried principles, Virginians in 1861 seceded from the Union to defend a way of life that to them seemed worth fighting for. In the twentieth century, they paid as they went, convinced that debt meant the end of good government.