Bill Tuck, a political life in Harry Byrd's Virginia

by William Bryan Crawley

Book by Crawley, William Bryan

281 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Cormacjosh]

Begun August 11th and completed October 27th, this is a project that I read at work for a listener to the Radio Reading Service who is a cousin to Governor Tuck. The book is a well written and generally unbiased document of political history and I recommend it. My only complaint was the reference to Nullification as a “discredited theory which had never been used successfully.” The author wanted to tie Nullification solely to the preservation of slavery, and John Calhoun’s Nullification Crisis, but he clearly forgets how Nullification was used to nullify the fugitive slave laws in 1856; and even today the laws are successfully being used to grant equal marriage rights to homosexuals. As the history of this book demonstrates, ( a fact which is admittedly uncomfortable to face ) the term “States’ Rights” has been abused to deny rights to individuals unfairly. But just because that is a reality, it is no reason to disregard the sovereignty of the States altogether.

Nonetheless, I can highly recommend this book as a well researched and generally unbiased historical document of Virginia history. It reminds us of how far we have ( sometimes ) come in regards to social policy, and simultaneously, how little things have changed.