Description
Book SynopsisThe culmination of a lifetime of erudition by one of America’s leading historians, this book reveals the integral role played by seven major Virginians before, during, and after the American Revolution: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, George Mason, Patrick Henry, and John Marshall.
Trade Review“Boles has eloquently synthesized a massive amount of material into a narrative history which, despite the overall familiarity of much of the material, is peppered with lucid explanations of complicated events and issues and some surprising insights and tidbits.” - Cynthia A. Kierner, George Mason University, author of
Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times“John Boles pours a lifetime of scholarly insight and clarity into this stellar history of seven Virginians who helped create the liberal revolutionary American experiment. In a necessary corrective of recent efforts to paint the American Revolution as a reactive or conservative movement, Boles places these founding fathers in their eighteenth-century context and properly shows that they helped establish ideals that we still aspire to achieve. A timely and important book.” - Douglas Bradburn, President and CEO of, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, author of
The Citizenship Revolution: Politics and the Creation of the American Union, 1774–1804“Focusing on the Virginians he knows so well, John Boles offers a fresh perspective on a familiar narrative.
Seven Virginians is a fitting capstone to a fine historian’s distinguished career.” - Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia, author of
Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American NationhoodTable of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The First Rumblings
- 2. The Fateful Step
- 3. Winning Independence
- 4. Unresolved Problems
- 5. Creating a New Government
- 6. The Virginia Ratification Debate
- 7. Launching the New Nation
- 8. Political Fissures
- 9. Political Crisis
- 10. A Political Turning Point
- 11. Jefferson, Madison, and John Bull
- 12. Mr. Madison's War
- 13. A Maturing Nation
- 14. Institution Builders
- 15. Legacy Deferred: The End of a Dynasty
