At the Falls: Richmond, Virginia, and Its People [Paperback]

Marie Tyler-McGraw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1994

In this richly illustrated book, Marie Tyler-McGraw presents almost 400 years of Richmond's history, covering a rich and complex past that stretches from Powhatan's encounter with English adventurers to the inauguration of attorney Douglas Wilder as the nation's first elected African American governor.

Lying at the fall line of the James River, Richmond was a transshipment point for the products of colonial plantation agriculture, an important slave market, and an early center of southern industrialization. More so than for most cities, the history of Richmond is a national history. Three times it has been at the center of the American story: as the westernmost area reached by explorers heading upriver from the Jamestown settlement; as the capital of the Confederacy and the site of the defeated South's memorialization of itself; and as a center of massive resistance to school desegregation in the 1950s.

Tyler-McGraw brings these and many other moments of high drama to life in a compelling story that moves beyond the city's entrepreneurs and politicians to incorporate the lives of those who also played a central part in Richmond's history: African Americans, women, and workers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Tyler-McGraw, a former staff historian at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, has relied heavily on a spate of specialized studies produced on Richmond's history since the 1960s to view the city within the context of an international urban system. Using concepts developed in social and urban history that emphasize race, class, and gender issues, the author sees several major themes that run throughout the city's history, including the James River and its varied uses, the cultural and economic diversity of the inhabitants, and urban/rural/suburban tensions within the physical landscape. Tyler-McGraw's exposition is clear and vivid, and she leaves little doubt that her sympathies lie with the great masses of people rather than the elite as the real force in Richmond's history. She has produced a readable, informative, and contemporary synthesis of the history of one of this nation's most historic cities. Recommended for general readers.
Charles C. Hay III, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Richmond
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The most ambitious general history of the city of Richmond yet published.

Virginia Librarian

Sets a high standard for how urban history should be done.

Journal of American History

A readable, informative, and contemporary synthesis of the history of one of this nation's most historic cities.

Library Journal

A worthwhile, informative, and at times provocative addition to the rapidly expanding list of historical analyses of Virginia's capital city.

North Carolina Historical Review

An ambitious book. . . . A book to read and reread, revealing something new at each effort.

Journal of Southern History

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (December 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807844764
• ISBN-13: 978-0807844762
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,013,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True History of Richmond, December 15, 2002

By 

Edward W. Reid (Rhyl, Wales) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At the Falls: Richmond, Virginia, and Its People (Paperback)

Most books about Richmond have focused on what we call the "great and good", that is the powerful families who have traditionally dominated the city. Tyler- McGraw, however, chooses to concentrate on the history of the ordinary people of Richmond - working class whites as well as African Americans and woman, who are almost completely forgotten by the official historians of the previous generations.

As someone connected to the city by family ties and who is intimately familiar with the place Tyler - McGraw's history rings true to me and much more than any other book I've seen about Richmond it reflects the history of my own family and of the Richmond I know. A good book, highly recommended.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars False Advertising, October 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: At the Falls: Richmond, Virginia, and Its People (Paperback)

Overall a pretty good read but I was surprised to find many prominent Richmond inhabitants and residents and other Virginians virtually passed over while many lesser lights, nationally (and, I feel quite sure, locally) speaking, received extensive treatment. While I appreciate the author filling what is surely a void in Virginia historical reportage, in the interest of truth in advertising I would have preferred Ms. McGraw and her publisher call the book, "At the Falls: Richmond, Virginia and Its Minority and Female People."