"The Birth of Virginia's Aristocracy" now available as an ebook October 07 2014

Look Inside!

This engaging book explains how a few scoundrels in 17th century Virginia made themselves into a social upper crust that ruled the Old Dominion for over two centuries

In a revised electronic edition of “The Birth of Virginia’s Aristocracy,” author James Thompson explains that took more than money and political clout for Virginia’s biggest planters to transform themselves into an "aristocracy". It also required the contrary opinion of Colonel Richard Lee II who transferred his allegiance from the squabbling, fragmented community that surrounded him to a distant English Lord. 

Commonwealth Books of Virginia is pleased to announce the publication of a revised edition of James Thompson’s “The Birth of Virginia’s Aristocracy.” It will soon be available in electronic formats for popular handheld readers.

About The Birth of Virginia’s Aristocracy:

James Thompson notes in his introduction that he is a philosopher, not an historian. The significance of his training becomes apparent in his account of how civil society developed in 17th century Virginia. Mr. Thompson begins his narrative by explaining that the Virginia Company was founded by men who aimed it to make MONEY. The author describes the natural disasters and corruption that led two decades later to the company's collapse and the reclamation of its Jamestown colony by England's king in 1624. He explains how social visionary Edmund Sandys tried to save the faltering enterprise by shifting its focus from generating business profits to manufacturing a viable community. Sandys did this, Thompson explains, by attracting productive new citizens with economic incentives, private land ownership, and a community “parliament”. Thompson interprets Sandys’ "commonwealth" experiment into a first principle of society: economic policies determine to fate of a society. Virginia’s commonwealth survived, he observes, because Sandys' ingenious scheme succeeded in transforming what had been a starving commune into a thriving marketplace. Thompson describes how growth snarled the commonwealth’s “civil society” in politics. He finds in this a second principle of society: as the cell grows it divides. In Virginia, increasingly distanced landowners encountered increasingly different opportunities and faced increasingly different problems. Seeking a way to manage its colony’s proliferating problems and conflicts, the Virginia’s Company’s London Council followed Sandys' recommendation and authorized its colonists to establish a local legislature where they could define their common good and make their laws. Doing these things made politics an integral aspect of Virginia’s fledgling society. It quickly became a divisive force. An ominous turn occurred in 1660 when Governor Berkeley began packing the legislature with his friends. In the process, Thompson observes, he created the privileged, wealthy set that is remembered today as Virginia’s “aristocracy”.

For information about the book and reseller discounts, contact James Thompson at jct@commonwealthbooks.org or at 703-307-7715.

The Birth of Virginia’s Aristocracy
By James C. Thompson
American History/Political Philosophy
ISBN (print - Paperback): 978-0-9825922-0-5
ISBN (ebook - PDF): 978-0-9825922-1-2
ISBN (ebook - Mobipocket): 978-0-9904018-6-5
ISBN (ebook - EPUB): 978-0-9904018-7-2
Paperback Edition: 150 pages / $16.00
E-book Editions: 140 pages / $5.95
Release date: October 30, 2014
Distributed by Small Press United of Chicago (312-337-0747)
View book details online at: http://www.commonwealthbooks.org

James Thompson's Virginia Historical Society Banner Lecture- Follow up and Recap Video September 24 2014

      The Virginia Historical Society's spacious Robbins Family Theater was filled to capacity on September 9th with Richmond history buffs who came to hear publisher and author James Thompson describe the Idea Men who enlightened France in the mid-18th century, the Salons where their ideas were discussed and debated, and the man who guided Jefferson through the progressive circles of pre-revolutionary Paris into the reform movement that precipitated the French Revolution. Thompson deviated from previous accounts of Jefferson in France, by relating what Jefferson learned from his hosts rather than what he taught them. To learn more about this topic on Jefferson’s visit in Paris read “Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment Paris-1785.”

 Click Play to watch a recap of James Thompson's presentation. 

Evelyn Swensson's charming memoir "Notes - My Life with Music" will be released September 22, 2014 September 16 2014

Place your order here-"Notes- My Life with Music"

Commonwealth Books of Virginia is pleased to announce the publication of Evelyn Swensson's memoir about her remarkable careers as a wife and mother, a singer, a composer of a dozen celebrated children's opera, and a mentor to dozens of talented young musicians.

Evelyn begins her story by remembering her mother and father whose families had lived for generations in the Shenandoah Valley. She explains that when her father enlisted in the calvary prior to World War II, she began a far-flung girlhood, which brought her into contact with great musical works, inspirational personalities (like MGM star Kathryn Grayson and Broadway star Mary Martin), and icons of American music (like folk music anthologist, John Jacob Niles and voice coach Martin Katz).

She was determined to fill her life with music, but her priorities were to support her adoring “DuPonter” husband and to raise their four beautiful children. Wherever Sig’s career took them, Evelyn made musical waves. She began her career in music as a “musical midwife” producing and conducting children’s operas by celebrated writers and composers - like her future friends Gian Carlo Menotti, Charles Strouse, and Libby Larsen.

Arriving in Wilmington, Delaware in the fall of 1969, Evelyn describes her serendipitous encounter with Wilmington’s “Musical Man for All Seasons” and now “Chick” Laird opened the way to what became three decades of conducting and composing operas for OperaDelaware. Her career as a musical midwife ended, and her career as a composer began, in 1993 when she wrote lyrics and a musical score for Oliver Butterworth's popular story about a dinosaur named Beazley. Since then, "The Enormous Egg" has been preformed more than a thousand times in theaters around the world.

Evelyn has included 250 photographs of people and places, and more than a dozen of her colorful productions. Readers share the excitement of the performers and stagehands, hundreds of them - young and old, who produced the shows. They sense the delight of the thousands of patrons who came to see them. Evelyn remembers the name of each person pictured and fills her accounts with entertaining comments about them. The most endearing aspect of Evelyn's story may be its final section in which more than a dozen of her young stars describe how she passed her love of music to them.

About the Author:
Mary Evelyn Dickinson was born in Woodstock, Virginia in 1929. After graduating from Hollins College, she married the love of her life, Sigurd Swensson, and began a marriage that lasted 64 years. When their four children went to college, at the age of 40, Evelyn enrolled in the Masters of Music program at West Chester University. Since then she has earned a worldwide reputation as a composer of children’s operas and for conducting world premiers of her own works and the works of other notable composers.