Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the Decline of Virginia [Hardcover]

Susan Dunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 2007

For decades, the Commonwealth of Virginia led the nation. The premier state in population, size, and wealth, it produced a galaxy of leaders: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Mason, Marshall. Four of the first five presidents were Virginians. And yet by the middle of the nineteenth century, Virginia had become a byword for slavery, provincialism, and poverty. What happened? In her remarkable book, Dominion of Memories, historian Susan Dunn reveals the little known story of the decline of the Old Dominion. While the North rapidly industrialized and democratized, Virginia's leaders turned their backs on the accelerating modern world. Spellbound by the myth of aristocratic, gracious plantation life, they waged an impossible battle against progress and time itself. In their last years, two of Virginia's greatest sons, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, grappled vigorously with the Old Dominion's plight. But bound to the traditions of their native soil, they found themselves grievously torn by the competing claims of state and nation, slavery and equality, the agrarian vision and the promises of economic development and prosperity. This fresh and penetrating examination of Virginia's struggle to defend its sovereignty, traditions, and unique identity encapsulates, in the history of a single state, the struggle of an entire nation drifting inexorably toward Civil War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Whatever happened to the great Commonwealth of Virginia? Dunn (Jefferson's Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800) investigates how Virginia fell from being the most advanced and vibrant of the 18th-century American states to being among the new country's most stultified and parochial. Dunn points out that four of the first five American presidents were Virginians, and it was often supposed in the early Republic that, in the words of one politician, the Old Dominion had hatched "a systematic design of perpetually governing the country." By the 1820s, however, the commonwealth's once thriving economy had shuddered to a halt, its aristocratic planters were defaulting on their considerable debts, many lived in poverty and visitors from the industrializing, bustling Northeast noticed that everything was dirty and dilapidated—even Monticello and Mount Vernon. Dunn attributes Virginia's downfall to a combination of its ruling elite adhering to a "gentlemanly" way of life, its obsession with states' rights and the retention of slavery. These factors, Dunn says, fostered an atmosphere of indolence and tedious provincialism that condemned the Old Dominion to the status of a has-been champion musing nostalgically on the pleasures of the past. By focusing intently on the stresses within a single state, Dunn's is an admirable guide to those perplexed by the eventual sundering of the entire Union. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The Virginia of the early 1800s was falling far behind northern states in economic dynamism and political heft. In this provocative exploration, Dunn explains that Old Dominion's elite was aware of its decline, and she delves into their moves toward reform. All failed, but the attempts to revive the state represent a historical alternative to the continuation of slavery and social stagnation. As context to her narration of two arenas where reformists made their case--an 1829 state constitutional convention, and, in the wake of the Nat Turner insurrection of 1831, another convention on emancipation--Dunn explains Virginians' self-conception of their society. Cultured leisure and hospitality were extolled, and the society's foundation in black slavery was defended. She also considers the political views of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison after they left the presidency, which trended away from nationalism, toward states' rights, and resulted in acquiescence in the somnolent status quo. Helping her readers visualize affairs with descriptions of dilapidated ports and worn-out farmland, Dunn renders the antebellum atmosphere with intellectual acuity. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (May 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465017436
• ISBN-13: 978-0465017430
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful look at the worst period of Virginia's history!, May 28, 2007

By 

John C. Wiegard "Virginia Librarian" (Chester, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the Decline of Virginia (Hardcover)

This analysis of Virginia History from 1800 to the Civil War and beyond is well researched, well-written, and fascinating. Dunn lets major figures such as Jefferson and Madison speak for themselves in chronicling the turning inward and clinging to slavery and class by a Virginia elite who oversaw a failure to adapt over a sixty year period. She does this without wasting words (it's a short book if you subtract the notes) and with a great deal of nuance and objectivity. There are historians with bigger names who write about wars and disasters- but Dunn does a brilliant job of telling this sad story of hard choices deferred and wasted. Good stuff!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, October 27, 2009

By 

C. P. Anderson (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison & the Decline of Virginia (Paperback)

How does the leading state of the Revolution (the Mother of Presidents) become a sad backwater 50 years later? Though the author points to many factors, what it all comes down to is slavery. Dunn, in fact, does a wonderful job tying all the various threads together.

Some of those threads include a culture that celebrated soil and leisure (did you know the original motto of Virginia was "God bestowed upon us this leisure"?), contempt for education and the intellect (serving mainly to justify slavery as "consistent with the purest justice"), and an active disregard for improvements and capitalism (land and slaves was all you needed). What Dunn does is show how all of these supported slavery and the aristocratic planter class that slavery itself supported.

Some of this has already been treated elsewhere, but Dunn does a particularly good job making the explicit connections to the Old Dominion (where I grew up). She does this primarily by focusing on Madison and Jefferson and the role they played. Neither comes across very well, but the Sage of Monticello comes out particularly poorly - at his backward, stubborn, retrograde, and hypocritical worst.

I also liked the attention she paid the two state constitutional conventions (where these issues were actually discussed at length), how the original state constitution (which Jefferson and Madison helped craft) effectively gave the planters all the power, and how tariffs and abolition were used as red herrings to draw attention away from the issue of slavery. Jumping forward a 100 years, she also shows how things really hadn't changed that much in the 20th Century, with a particular emphasis on Virginia's embarrassing role in the Civil Rights movement.

Dunn's writing style is also excellent. There is a ton of research behind this book, which is reflected especially in her quotes. I don't think I've ever read a book that had more telling quotes or used quotes better than this one.

Perhaps the only thing I didn't like was the attention paid to constitutional and legal matters. They're important, I'm sure many readers will enjoy them, but for me they were very boring. Overall, though, an incredible book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mystery of Virginia, October 2, 2007

By 

Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the Decline of Virginia (Hardcover)

This solid volume sets out to answer a question that has puzzled many of us who have lived in Virginia: what caused the Commonwealth to decline in influence from the commanding position it held during the colonial and early national periods? Susan Dunn offers a variety of explanations for this phenomenon as she focuses primarily upon the period prior to the Civil War. Among the most important factors, in her judgment, was the "cult of the soil" mentality--that is, the Virginia prior to the Civil War was the epitome of culture, gracious living, political independence, and harmony (even including relations with slaves). The Tidewater control of Virginia, which began in colonial days, and included both economic and political dimensions, was highly resistant to giving way to more modern influences, such as broader sufferage, development of manufacturing, and expanded public education.

Individual chapters are used to spell out in detail Dunn's arguments on topics such as the impact of slavery; resistance to developing top-quality public education; the failure to develop road, canal and railroad networks; a reluctance to venture too far away from an agriculturally-based economy; a fixation on states' rights ideology; limiting the sufferage to a fraction of the white male population; and reliance upon tariffs for economic protection. Running through the entire pre-Civil War period of course is the institution of slavery and the continuing dread that the northern-industrial-free labor federal government might well decide to terminate slavery once and for all. Hence, abolitionists become primary enemies, and fighting them drained off important resources that could have been utilized to modernize Virginia. Jefferson, Madison and other Virginia national pollitical figures come in for some effective criticism by Dunn. Her analysis has an epilogue which focuses on the period from the New Deal to the present in Virginia, where such topics as the "massive resistance" movement and the leadership in opposition to Civil Rights Acts is dominated by Virginia Senators.

Well, what is one to say about this indictment, if that is what it is? Has Dunn overstated or oversimplified the issues? She certainly has done an impressive amount of research--the book contains 63 pages of very pertinent notes and references which serve as support blocks for her argument. Has she ignored other pertinent considerations? These are extremely difficult questions, and I think each reader has to judge the strength of her contentions based upon their own background, historical knowledge, and temperament. I certainly found it a worthy book to read, and it stimulated some new synapses for me. But then again, I am only a former Virginian.