1. Louis B. Wright, The First Gentlemen of Virginia

A classic and important study of early Virginia cavalier society.

2. Charles Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making

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

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)

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

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

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

Comprehensive survey of a rich subject.

8. John R. Alden, The First South

The origins of Southern society before the Revolution.

9. James Broussard, The Southern Federalists: 1800-1816

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

A good study on an often neglected element of the War of 1812, the Southern Frontier.