For the last several weeks, we have excerpted our Robert E. Lee entry into separate Virginia Vignettes: Was Lee Called Robert, Bob, or R. E.? What Did Robert E. Lee Think About Slavery? Was There a Downside to Robert E. Lee’s Bold Generalship? What Was Robert E. Lee Like After the Civil War? The Vignettes [...]

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Today is National Women’s Equality Day, in honor of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. But wait, there’s more! The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. [...]

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The details of this particular academic kerfuffle are less interesting (to me) than the fact that John Stauffer, a professor of history at Harvard University and author, with Sally Jenkins, of The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy, defends Hollywood films: I’ve been amazed by the deep animosity that [...]

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With all the hoopla over the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock, another anniversary has been lost: Hurricane Camille, which swept through central Virginia on August 19, 1969. Remember all the rain-soaked hippies up in New York? Thank Hurricane Camille. Here in Virginia, however, it rained a bit harder. Okay, a lot harder: Camille’s official rainfall total [...]

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Mike Seeger, the folk singer, instrumentalist, and folklorist, died in Lexington on Friday. He was 75. The New York Times has an excellent obituary, which includes this, from Bob Dylan: “Mike was unprecedented,” Mr. Dylan wrote, adding: “As for being a folk musician, he was the supreme archetype. He could push a stake through Dracula’s [...]

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Last month, we had occasion to mention the fact that John Grisham is writing a screenplay about the so-called Norfolk Four, four sailors who claim to have been wrongly convicted in the rape and murder of a Norfolk woman in 1997. The men confessed to the crime, but following their guilty verdicts, recanted, claiming they [...]

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The following objection was recently submitted by a reader in response to our entry on the Virginia Convention of 1861. In writing about the machinations of the secession convention in Richmond, we write: “Ominously for the Unionists, the vote came a week after Lincoln ended his vacillation over what to do and resolved to send [...]

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The Washington Post weighs in on Wal-Mart and the Wilderness this morning. It’s one of those staff editorials obsessed with balance and being fair—not that there’s anything wrong with that!—but not particularly interested in actually making an argument or having an opinion. Preservationists are right to want to protect some of the battlefield. However, if [...]

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