Seven Virginians

The Men Who Shaped Our Republic

John B. Boles

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780813949093
• eBook ISBN: 9780813949109
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Seven Virginians, the culmination of a lifetime of erudition by one of America's leading historians, reveals the integral role played by seven major Virginians before, during, and after the American Revolution: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, George Mason, Patrick Henry, and John Marshall.

Most accounts of the founding generation focus only on the activities of the "big three"—Washington, Jefferson, and Madison—but Boles incorporates the key contributions of these other four important figures to the political and legal structures that govern the United States to this day. At the same time, Boles is clear-eyed about the Revolutionary generation's problems and their fading from the scene, inaugurating the beginnings of Virginia's political decline in the early nineteenth century. In so doing, Boles provides the crucial Virginian piece to the ongoing reevaluation of the United States' founding moment.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The First Rumblings
• 2 The Fateful Step
• 3 Winning Independence
• 4 Unresolved Problems
• 5 Creating a New Government
• 6 The Virginia Ratification Debate
• 7 Launching the New Nation
• 8 Political Fissures
• 9 Political Crisis
• 10 A Political Turning Point
• 11 Jefferson, Madison, and John Bull
• 12 Mr. Madison’s War
• 13 A Maturing Nation
• 14 Institution Builders
• 15 Legacy Deferred and the End of a Dynasty
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index