The Birth of Virginia’s Aristocracy
James C. Thompson II (Col ’71, Grad ’74)
Commonwealth Books
Virginia’s aristocracy was born when Col. Richard Lee II transferred his allegiance from the squabbling, fragmented community that surrounded him to a distant English lord. The descendants of the men who filled Virginia’s first general assembly followed suit. Thompson explores why and how early Virginian society was organized into a class system and the complex relationship between the leading families on both sides of the Atlantic.

Time and Tide in Acadia: Seasons on Mount Desert Island
Christopher Camuto (Grad ’80, ’99)
W.W. Norton & Company
Millions are drawn every year to the stunning beauty of the rocky landscape of spruce-fir forest and granite islands of Acadia National Park in Maine. Christopher Camuto drew on his intimate experience of Mount Desert Island’s summits, shorelines, marshes and tidal waters to write a book that observes wildlife and landscape while exploring the landscape’s history, the indigenous perceptions of nature and both the psychological and philosophical appeal of the wilderness.

A Healing Place: Help Your Child Find Hope and Happiness After the Loss of a Loved One
Kate Atwood (Col ’00) with John Kelly
Penguin Group
At the age of 12, Kate Atwood lost her mother to breast cancer. Later, she founded Kate’s Club, a non-profit organization that empowers children and teens who have lost loved ones. A Healing Place is based on Atwood’s down-to-earth philosophy on how to handle grief and aims to help parents cope with the realities and daily struggles grieving children face in a forthright, compassionate manner.

Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era
Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff (Grad ’98, ’03)
The University of North Carolina Press
In the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration failed to endorse legislation that might have significantly improved political, economic and social conditions for African Americans. Instead, it offered federal support to notable black intellectuals, celebrities and artists such as Lena Horne, Joe Louis, Duke Ellington and Richard Wright. Sklaroff argues that these cultural programs were not merely an attempt to appease a black constituency, but were also part of the New Deal’s larger goal of promoting a multiracial nation.

At Reagan’s Side: Insiders’ Recollections from Sacramento to the White House
Stephen F. Knott (Faculty) and Jeffrey L. Chidester (Grad ’07, Faculty)
Rowman & Littlefield
At Reagan’s Side offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the candidacy and election of Ronald Reagan, chronicling his run for and subsequent election to public office as governor of California, and later as president of the United States. Knott and Chidester survey the life of the “Great Communicator” through the eyes of famous and lesser-known administration insiders such as James Baker, Edwin Meese and Joanne Drake.

In Pursuit of Universalism: Yorozu Tetsugorô and Japanese Modern Art
Alicia Volk (Col ’94)
University of California Press
In Pursuit of Universalism is the first comprehensive, English-language study of early 20th-century Japanese modern art. Artist Tetsugorô was at the forefront of defining Japanese art’s role in the world by interrogating and ultimately refusing the opposition between East and West. Volk’s argument builds bridges between the fields of modern and Asian art and unites them in a global history of modern art.

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