The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790

Description

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Rhys Isaac describes and analyzes the dramatic confrontations–primarily religious and political–that transformed Virginia in the second half of the eighteenth century. Making use of the observational techniques of the cultural anthropologist, Isaac vividly recreates and painstakingly dissects a society in the turmoil of profound inner change.

About The Author

Rhys Isaac (1937-2010) was Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Emeritus Professor of History at LaTrobe University in Australia.

Awards

The National Historical Society Book Prize, National Historical Society (1983)

Pulitzer Prize, The Pulitzer Prize Committee (1983)

Reviews

One of the best–and most provocative–books written on colonial Anglo-America over the past decade, it must be the starting point for all further work on the subject. Equally important, [Isaac’s] efforts to demonstrate how historians can profitably employ some of the tools of symbolic anthropologists . . . deserve close inspection.–Times Literary Supplement

[A] gracefully written evocation of eighteenth-century Virginia culture. . . . The book convinces us that close attention to commonplace events and their settings by someone of Isaac’s ability will give us fresh access to long lost worlds.–American Historical Review