Virginia, more than any other state, forged what most people throughout the world considered to be an “American” culture. She was the home of presidents, jurists, and statesmen, explorers and adventurers, and some of the greatest military heroes in American history. Her sons established the first permanent English foothold in America, blazed trails to the west, mapped the seas, drafted the founding documents, crafted our debates over the powers of the Supreme Court and the general government, provided the foundation for the Bill of Rights, established representative government, dominated the origins of American music, free religion, and the writing of history, and birthed the first American heroes. America, as we know it, would not exist without Virginia. This is a positive narrative of the American experience designed to wrest control of the American story from both “conservative” and “progressive” historians and their gloomy, ideologically driven New England narrative. Virginia should be the American sun, the “lamp of experience” in a world of destructive political and historical innovation. As Lyon Gardiner Tyler writes in his opening essay “Virginia First”: “The United States of America are mere words of description. They are not a name. The rightful and historic name of this great republic is Virginia. We must get back to it if the country’s name is to have any real significance.”

Year Published: 2024
Editor: Brion McClanahan