THE BIRTH OF VIRGINIA'S ARISTOCRACY is Released

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".

About the Author:
James C. Thompson is the author of The Birth of Virginia's Aristocracy (2009), and The Dubious Achievement of the 1st Continental Congress (2011). Thomas Jefferson's Enlightenment - Background Notes and The First Revolutions in the Minds of the People are scheduled for release this fall. Mr. Thompson holds degrees in Philosophy from Mr. Jefferson's University. Mr. Thompson completed his research on his Aristocracy commentary as a Battin Fellow at Monticello.

About Commonwealth Books of Virginia:
Commonwealth Books of Virginia's motto, "Where History, Philosophy, and Art Meet", underscores the three-dimensional quality of the histories it publishes. It uses state-of-the-art technology to transform its printed titles into families of products including ebooks, audio books, audio/video programs, and mobile devise applications. It advertises its authors and products in a program that coordinates traditional public relations with social media outreach. Its print and e-book editions are distributed by Small Press United of Chicago and its online affiliates. Its audio, audio-video, and video products are available through Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, and their global partners.

For information about the book and reseller discounts, contact James Thompson at jct(at)commonwealthbooks(dot)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