By the spring of 1862, Union forces controlled almost all of what was to become the state of West Virginia. One of the most remarkable regiments of the Civil War that included two future presidents would move south to occupy the village of Pearisburg, Virginia. This placed the Federals within twenty miles of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, a vital southern rail link. Although the fight that followed was small by Civil War standards, it reflected much of what was happening in the larger war.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “It takes a rare individual not only to see that history can live, but also to make it live for others. James Thom has that gift.”—The Indianapolis News Mary Ingles was twenty-three, happily married, and pregnant with her third child when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement in 1755 and kidnapped her, leaving behind a bloody massacre. For months they held her captive. But nothing could imprison her spirit. With the rushing Ohio River as her guide, Mary Ingles walked one thousand miles through an untamed wilderness no white woman had ever seen. Her story lives on—extraordinary testimony to the indomitable strength of one pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her own people.

Soon after Giles County was formed in 1806, George Pearis offered 53 acres, lumber, and stone to build the first courthouse. The building was constructed, and Pearisburg was established in 1808 at the geographic center of the county. The original courthouse was replaced in 1836 with the current brick structure that has been recently renovated and is still in use today. Giles County’s story is one of water crossings and floods, agriculture, industrial development, railroads, tourism, and distinct communities isolated by the mountains and water. Natural resources, including mountains, springs, creeks, limestone cliffs, and 37 miles of the New River in Giles County, have shaped the settlement, industry, transportation, commerce, recreation, and tourism of the area. Photographs of life in each of these small communities depict the varied history of Giles County and those who have been drawn to this place.

This history covers the middle New River area from 1654 to 1905 with an emphasis on Mercer County, West Virginia. Mercer County was created in 1837 from Giles and Tazewell counties, Virginia, and was part of Virginia until 1863.

The amazing and blessed life of popular ESPN reporter and correspondent for College GameDay, Marty Smith, whose mission in this thoughtful and funny memoir is to return fans to the true soul of sports in this country. You know Marty right? The guy during College GameDay hanging off the back of a pickup truck while zooming around the Clemson athletic facilities. The guy who visits Nick Saban's lake house and somehow gets Coach to jump in the lake. The guy who sits down with Dale Jr. at Daytona to talk through tears about his miraculous return to racing. The guy who interviews Tiger Woods, Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning and Jimmie Johnson -- the guy who gets paid to live the fantasy of every sports fan in America. Never Settle is the funny but oh, it's true story of how Marty got here, and a revealing look at his journey. Never Settle includes all the best stories and behind-the-scenes moments from Marty's wild life, covering topics including: college football, racing, fathers and sons, how sports can bring us together, and how it all goes back to growing up on a farm and playing high school ball in Pearisburg, Virginia.

The New River, creeks, limestone, timber, mineral springs, mountains, and railroads have shaped the small communities, industries, and tourism of Giles County, Virginia. Many once-bustling places in the county are quieter today, but buildings and landscapes of earlier times are still present and interesting to compare to photographs of the past. Terri L. Fisher, executive director of the Giles County Historical Society and author of Images of America: Pearisburg and Giles County and Lost Communities of Virginia, is a resident of Narrows.

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 change. In The Grandees of Government, Brent Tarter offers an extended commentary based in primary sources on how these undemocratic institutions and ideas arose, and how they were both perpetuated and challenged. Although much literature on American republicanism focuses on the writings of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, among others, Tarter reveals how their writings were in reality an expression of federalism, not of republican government. Within Virginia, Jefferson, Madison, and others such as John Taylor of Caroline and their contemporaries governed in ways that directly contradicted their statements about representative—and limited— government. Even the democratic rhetoric of the American Revolution worked surprisingly little immediate change in the political practices, institutions, and culture of Virginia. The counterrevolution of the 1880s culminated in the Constitution of 1902 that disfranchised the remainder of African Americans. Virginians who could vote reversed the democratic reforms embodied in the constitutions of 1851, 1864, and 1869, so that the antidemocratic Byrd organization could dominate Virginia’s public life for the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. Offering a thorough reevaluation of the interrelationship between the words and actions of Virginia’s political leaders, The Grandees of Government provides an entirely new interpretation of Virginia’s political history.