Richmond's Civil War history is familiar to every local and visitor, but fewer know the stories of the city's early days. Did you know that some of the area's earliest settlers were Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France? Major John Clarke designed many of Richmond's first public buildings, but did you know that he was one of the masterminds behind the area's early industry as well? Tredegar Iron Works was the arsenal of the Confederacy, but Richmond-area foundries at Westham and Bellona supplied weapons to the armies of the Revolution as well. Richmond's first penitentiary was designed by Benjamin Latrobe before his term as architect of the Capitol. Local author Maurice Robinson narrates the tales of early Richmond's seven hills and beyond.

Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America and a New York Times bestselling author, looks at the history of the battle against oligarchy in America—and how we can win the latest round. Billionaire oligarchs want to own our republic, and they're nearly there thanks to legislation and Supreme Court decisions that they have essentially bought. They put Trump and his political allies into office and support a vast network of think tanks, publications, and social media that every day push our nation closer and closer to police-state tyranny. The United States was born in a struggle against the oligarchs of the British aristocracy, and ever since then the history of America has been one of dynamic tension between democracy and oligarchy. And much like the shock of the 1929 crash woke America up to glaring inequality and the ongoing theft of democracy by that generation's oligarchs, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has laid bare how extensively oligarchs have looted our nation's economic system, gutted governmental institutions, and stolen the wealth of the former middle class. Thom Hartmann traces the history of this struggle against oligarchy from America's founding to the United States' war with the feudal Confederacy to President Franklin Roosevelt's struggle against “economic royalists,” who wanted to block the New Deal. In each of those cases, the oligarchs lost the battle. But with increasing right-wing control of the media, unlimited campaign contributions, and a conservative takeover of the judicial system, we're at a crisis point. Now is the time for action, before we flip into tyranny. We've beaten the oligarchs before, and we can do it again. Hartmann lays out practical measures we can take to break up media monopolies, limit the influence of money in politics, reclaim the wealth stolen over decades by the oligarchy, and build a movement that will return control of America to We the People.

A true adventure story of a man who built a four-million acre cattle empire in the remote ranges of the British Columbia Interior.

Articles which originally appeared in a local history column in Richmond magazine.

This exploration of Richmond's burial landscape over the past 300 years reveals in illuminating detail how racism and the color line have consistently shaped death, burial, and remembrance in this storied Southern capital. Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy, holds one of the most dramatic landscapes of death in the nation. Its burial grounds show the sweep of Southern history on an epic scale, from the earliest English encounters with the Powhatan at the falls of the James River through slavery, the Civil War, and the long reckoning that followed. And while the region's deathways and burial practices have developed in surprising directions over these centuries, one element has remained stubbornly the same: the color line. But something different is happening now. The latest phase of this history points to a quiet revolution taking place in Virginia and beyond. Where white leaders long bolstered their heritage and authority with a disregard for the graves of the disenfranchised, today activist groups have stepped forward to reorganize and reclaim the commemorative landscape for the remains of people of color and religious minorities. In Death and Rebirth in a Southern City, Ryan K. Smith explores more than a dozen of Richmond's most historically and culturally significant cemeteries. He traces the disparities between those grounds which have been well-maintained, preserving the legacies of privileged whites, and those that have been worn away, dug up, and built over, erasing the memories of African Americans and indigenous tribes. Drawing on extensive oral histories and archival research, Smith unearths the heritage of these marginalized communities and explains what the city must do to conserve these gravesites and bring racial equity to these arenas for public memory. He also shows how the ongoing recovery efforts point to a redefinition of Confederate memory and the possibility of a rebirthed community in the symbolic center of the South. The book encompasses, among others, St. John's colonial churchyard; African burial grounds in Shockoe Bottom and on Shockoe Hill; Hebrew Cemetery; Hollywood Cemetery, with its 18,000 Confederate dead; Richmond National Cemetery; and Evergreen Cemetery, home to tens of thousands of black burials from the Jim Crow era. Smith's rich analysis of the surviving grounds documents many of these sites for the first time and is enhanced by an accompanying website, www.richmondcemeteries.org. A brilliant example of public history, Death and Rebirth in a Southern City reveals how cemeteries can frame changes in politics and society across time.

The city of Richmond Heights, located in St. Louis County, is a community rich in history. Incorporated in 1913, Richmond Heights was established as a residential suburb of St Louis. Early residents included the McCutcheon, Barron, Niesen, Grove, Brennan, Gay, Buehning, and DeBolt families. The introduction of modern highways and commerce altered the city's physical character, which prompted this publication. The authors hope this book encourages the citizens of Richmond Heights -- and others -- to embrace the city's history and promote preservation of its historic resources.

The history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Richmond, Virginia, invokes a rich but uncelebrated past. From the first recorded sodomy prosecution in America in 1624 to the fight to repeal the "crimes against nature" laws, LGBTs have left their imprint on almost 400 years of history in the Old Dominion's capital. Lesbian and Gay Richmond presents a photographic showcase of the events, people, and places that have been a part of this history. There are snapshots from the 1920s and 1930s when avant-garde and gay authors caroused and shared ideas in private homes. Previously untold stories from the post-World War II era tell of the rise of the gay cafAA(c)s in Richmond and the subsequent attempts by the authorities to shut their doors. Much like larger cities to the north and west of Richmond, the attempts to close these bars led to the first public protests in the late 1960s. Other images show how Richmond has a unique story to lend to the larger national LGBT history.