1. Louis B. Wright, The First Gentlemen of Virginia
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A classic and important study of early Virginia cavalier society.
2. Charles Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making
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A thorough analysis of Virginia politics in Colonial Virginia, complete with a discussion of barbecues and free grog for Virginia freeholders.
3. Norman K. Risjord, The Old Republicans: Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson
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The only comprehensive study on the Jeffersonian republicans of the early federal period.
4. David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History)
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The best study on the colonial Cavalier and Celtic cultures in relation to their Northern counterparts, the Puritans and Quakers.
5. Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia
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The Old Dominion described and celebrated in the first Southern (and the first real American) book.
6. M.E. Bradford, A Better Guide Than Reason: Federalists and Anti-Federalists
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A guide to the true meaning of the Revolution for those who carried it out.
7. Richard Beale Davis, Intellectual Life in the Colonial South
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Comprehensive survey of a rich subject.
8. John R. Alden, The First South
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The origins of Southern society before the Revolution.
9. James Broussard, The Southern Federalists: 1800-1816
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The only book of its kind on a much neglected part of Southern history.
10. Glover Moore, The Missouri Controversy 1819–1821
Moore explains why the Federalist Party and the North agitated over the issue of slavery between 1819-1821. Hint, it wasn’t for humanitarian concerns.
11. Mike Bunn and Clay Williams, Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812
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A good study on an often neglected element of the War of 1812, the Southern Frontier.