Coming on the heels of her critically acclaimed biography of James Madison, best-selling author and historian Lynne Cheney has skillfully crafted “Virginia Dynasty — Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation” (Viking, 448 pgs., $36).
Her own political acumen is superb, and she knows precisely when and how to connect the dots of these early American political leaders to form a definitive examination of their inter-relationships.
Chaney herself is no stranger to the complex relationships between politicians. Cheney’s husband, Dick Cheney, served as vice president for eight years under George W. Bush, and their daughter, Liz, is currently a congresswoman from Wyoming in the state’s at-large district. Cheney also served in the Ronald Reagan presidential administration as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cheney herself received a Ph.D. in 19th-century British literature from the University of Wisconsin.
With that kind of background, Cheney is a natural to pursue the political interconnections of these Virginia’s founding fathers — and four of the nation’s first five presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.
For example, Jefferson disliked Washington, who was leery of Jefferson and trusted Alexander Hamilton’s ideas instead. Jefferson and Madison, however, were friends, but also rivals, and Madison and Monroe were conflicted and often did not appear to be on the course, which they professed to be the same. Also, Jefferson was Monroe’s mentor, but Monroe disliked the wide shadow that Jefferson seemed to cast even in his retirement years.
Cheney scrutinizes these presidents whose disputes gradually developed America’s political parties. She also tells the stories of their advancement of liberty and equality, while stressing that each built their own personal businesses and wealth on slavery. They were, in fact, each slave holders when they died.
In an Interview several months ago with The Wall Street Journal, Cheney stressed that the four presidents “were aware of the contradiction (slavery) in which they lived, but unable to resolve it, unable to find a way to the total emancipation that justice demanded.”
The political lives as well as personal successes and failures of these men combine in Cheney’s account to explain many of the important factors in the development of the United States.
In the Wall Street Journal account, Cheney further said she hoped that revisiting the origins of our nation will “instill the values that have long ‘been a kind of civic glue that has held us together.'” She added, “There are some things we have unlearned about the ideas they put forward.”
Cheney explained she was intrigued by the fact that all four presidents spent their childhoods and lived much of their lives within a 60-mile radius of each other. They had similar backgrounds, yet struggled to be successful in the management of their plantations. Jefferson and Monroe were the least profitable.
Cheney is a delightful wordsmith, who doesn’t clutter her writing with phrase, upon phrase, upon phrase. She is a succinct and masterful storyteller.
Saga of a streetcar
Thank goodness Gregory Siegel likes history, especially the history of his city — Hampton and his own neighborhood, Olde Wythe. Because of that passion, Siegel has become a specialist in the history of the old Hampton Roads Golf and Country Club, where President Woodrow Wilson visited to play several rounds.
Now Siegel has taken up a new challenge. The last surviving lower Peninsula streetcar was found in Baltimore and a committee was developed, at Siegel’s encouragement, to attempt to save and reconstruct the car. As the project developed, Siegel, quite naturally, became interested in not only the history of the car itself, but also the streetcar era in Hampton and Newport News.
The result is Siegel’s “The One that Survived: The Story of Streetcar 390 and the Era of Streetcar Service on the Lower Peninsula,” (Palmetto Publishing, 138 pgs., $20). As good as his narrative is, the book becomes more historically valuable because of the numerous insightful photographs included that illustrate all elements of the streetcar story.
The history of Streetcar 390 is intriguing. Rather than being sold for scrap, a couple purchased the decommissioned streetcar and made it their home for 30 years. It had become a storage facility for a hardware company, when the Baltimore Streetcar Museum found it and saved it from becoming scrap, again. In 2017 the museum contacted the Hampton History Museum to see if they were interested in old 390.
Thus, the last episode in the streetcar saga began with the restoration efforts and ultimate placement, if funding is secured, for 390 to become an integral new/old part of Hampton’s history. You can readily tell Siegel’s love for his subject in his narrative which describes in detail this unique saga.
‘Archaeology of Virginia’s First Peoples’
Specialty books are not generally considered for inclusion in “Kale on Books,” but this is an exception because of the very important subject matter.
For those readers interested in additional detailed information on the first Native Americans in this region, examine “The Archaeology of Virginia’s First Peoples” (Independent Publisher, 308 pgs., $40) edited by Elizabeth A. Moore and Bernard K. Means.
Moore, state archaeologist for the Virginia Department of Historical Resources, and Means, assistant professor of anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University, have put together a series of chapters by various archaeologists who explore Virginia’s pre-European past, stretching back 15,000 years.
This book becomes more important as the federal government last year officially recognized six of Virginia’s Native American tribes — the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond. The Pamunkey Tribe had been recognized earlier.
According to Means the basic goal of the contributors “is to place in a central location a scholarly but accessible overview of American Indian archaeology before Europeans colonized Virginia. … We hope that we might revitalize student interest in Virginia archaeology with one source that covers the current archaeological understanding of ‘Virginia’s First Peoples.'”
