Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion

American Guide Series

by Virginia Writers' Project, Work Projects Administration

The crowning achievement of the New Deal's Federal Writers' Project was its American Guide Series of books and pamphlets describing the nation's cities, states, territories, regions, and localities. Published by Oxford University Press in 1940, the Virginia guide is still in great demand more than sixty years later for its wealth of fascinating historical information. This reprint edition includes an insightful new forward by Garrett Epps.

Genres: History

710 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1940

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

You 100% MUST read this book as if you were reading it during the time period in which it was written. If you look at it through a 1930s lens, this is a guide to the Commonwealth as it was in those days. The Civil War is simply referred to throughout as "the war" and the word "negro" is the norm. This is an authentic snapshot of pre-World War II Virginia, along with all of its warts. I found the travel guides to be the most interesting, as many of the sites no longer exist. It would be quite interesting to try to drive these tours, but I fear that the majority will be impossible.

Honestly, much of the book is quite dry with statistics and repetition. You have to really have an interest in Virginia to slog through it. As someone who lived there for almost 25 years, in three different localities, I had an interest, but it was a rough go at times.

Rating this from a 2025 perspective, many should prepare to be offended by, well, almost everything. There is no sugarcoating and no political correctness to be found within these pages. At the time, there was a great deal of inequality. I do think that after reading many of the statistics, people ought to consider how far the Commonwealth has come in almost a hundred years, transforming itself from rural backwoods with close to zero emphasis on education to where it is today.

Because of how valuable a snapshot into the past this is, I'm giving it 5 stars.

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guidebook, written in the late 1930s provides a snapshot of the Commonwealth at that time, and it is a much different place than today. The Virginia of 1940 was closer to the Virginia of 1740 that it is to today. The book also provides great detailed background concerning placenames, landmarks and persons. It would be fun to try and trace some of these tours today, given that many of the landmarks and even roads have been obliterated by "progress."