Brent Tarter: 3 books

From the formation of the first institutions of representative government and the use of slavery in the seventeenth century through the American Revolution, the Civil War, the civil rights movement, and into the twenty-first century, Virginia’s history has been marked by obstacles to democratic...

From a rich trove of documents master historian Brent Tarter vividly recreates a western Virginia family's unique but representative experience of the secession crisis and the first days of the Civil War. George Berlin at first opposes secession, but comes to endorse it and is consequently run out...

In the lead-up to the Civil War, Virginia, like other southern states, amassed a large public debt while striving to improve transportation infrastructure and stimulate economic development. A Saga of the New South delves into the largely untold story of the decades-long postwar controversies over...