An important addition to scholarship of the geography and history of colonial and early America, The Planting of New Virginia, rethinks American history and the evolution of the American landscape in the colonial era.

A pioneering work in Atlantic studies that emphasizes a transnational approach to the past.

In The First American Frontier, Wilma Dunaway challenges many assumptions about the development of preindustrial Southern Appalachia's society and economy. Drawing on data from 215 counties in nine states from 1700 to 1860, she argues that capitalist exchange and production came to the region much earlier than has been previously thought. Her innovative book is the first regional history of antebellum Southern Appalachia and the first study to apply world-systems theory to the development of the American frontier. Dunaway demonstrates that Europeans established significant trade relations with Native Americans in the southern mountains and thereby incorporated the region into the world economy as early as the seventeenth century. In addition to the much-studied fur trade, she explores various other forces of change, including government policy, absentee speculation in the region's natural resources, the emergence of towns, and the influence of local elites. Contrary to the myth of a homogeneous society composed mainly of subsistence homesteaders, Dunaway finds that many Appalachian landowners generated market surpluses by exploiting a large landless labor force, including slaves. In delineating these complexities of economy and labor in the region, Dunaway provides a perceptive critique of Appalachian exceptionalism and development.

A COMPANION TO THE ERA OF ANDREW JACKSON More than perhaps any other president, Andrew Jackson’s story mirrored that of the United States; from his childhood during the American Revolution, through his military actions against both Native Americans and Great Britain, and continuing into his career in politics. As president, Jackson attacked the Bank of the United States, railed against disunion in South Carolina, defended the honor of Peggy Eaton, and founded the Democratic Party. In doing so, Andrew Jackson was not only an eyewitness to some of the seminal events of the Early American Republic; he produced an indelible mark on the nation’s political, economic, and cultural history. A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson features a collection of more than 30 original essays by leading scholars and historians that consider various aspects of the life, times, and legacy of the seventh president of the United States. Topics explored include life in the Early American Republic; issues of race, religion, and culture; the rise of the Democratic Party; Native American removal events; the Panic of 1837; the birth of women’s suffrage, and more.

The origins of Clarke County, Virginia go back more than 250 years to the men and women who first settled in Shenandoah Valley and left their imprint upon the land. When, in the early 1830s, the people in one portion of old Frederick County moved to establish their own county, they were seeking to maintain the way of life they had inherited from this earlier generation. At the same time, they were acting in concert with contemporary forces that had a statewide, and in some ways national, significance. The origins of Clarke County--how it came to be, and why--are examined here for the first time. Warren R. Hofstra not only tells the story of the people who made Clarke County a separate place but also puts the movement for its formation in the context of Virginia and U.S. politics. It is a story fascinating in detail and rich in implication, for the issues that strained old Frederick to the breaking point--local control vs. an expanded federal government, conformity vs. pluralism, agrarian values vs. commercial pursuits--are still featured in the political debates today both regionally and nationally.