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Vignettes of Colonial Virginia: Remarkable Stories from the Founding of America
228 pages, Paperback
Published October 8, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
March 9, 2026
If you're looking to learn something about colonial America (and specifically Virginia) without having names and dates thrown at you; if you want to learn something about human beings and other ways they have organized their societies than the one we know now; if you want something easy to read; and if you want to both laugh and be sad, then -- this is the book for you.
Drawing from a lifetime of research on Virginian history, Brent Tarter pulls out some of the most illustrative or unique, relatable or utterly inconceivable, hilarious or depressing slices of life in the Old Dominion between 1607 and 1776. This is not the story of the "Great Men" who ran things; these are the little people like us, and their stories give us insight into the beliefs and living conditions of their time. Personally I appreciated Tarter's political sentiments expressed in the preface (i.e., how he has seen the scope of historians' focus broaden over the course of his career and fears that we are currently regressing), but I also don't think this book would bother somebody from the right side of the political spectrum.
I absolutely loved the unique approach Tarter takes in the first chapter. Even if we don't know who they were, logically there must have been someone on shore who first spotted the English ships, just as there must have been someone on the ships who first spotted the shore. Focusing on these two unknown people was such a fascinating way to open the book, and that level of quality remained throughout the whole volume.
You are in good hands with this book!
Drawing from a lifetime of research on Virginian history, Brent Tarter pulls out some of the most illustrative or unique, relatable or utterly inconceivable, hilarious or depressing slices of life in the Old Dominion between 1607 and 1776. This is not the story of the "Great Men" who ran things; these are the little people like us, and their stories give us insight into the beliefs and living conditions of their time. Personally I appreciated Tarter's political sentiments expressed in the preface (i.e., how he has seen the scope of historians' focus broaden over the course of his career and fears that we are currently regressing), but I also don't think this book would bother somebody from the right side of the political spectrum.
I absolutely loved the unique approach Tarter takes in the first chapter. Even if we don't know who they were, logically there must have been someone on shore who first spotted the English ships, just as there must have been someone on the ships who first spotted the shore. Focusing on these two unknown people was such a fascinating way to open the book, and that level of quality remained throughout the whole volume.
You are in good hands with this book!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review