Cradle of the Empire: A Big History of Virginia

I am happy to announce that the history book I have been working on for the last four years is complete. The ebook edition is ready to order on Amazon.

I am still in the process of designing the cover file for the paperback and hardcover editions. Those I intend to have available by the end of the month. Until then, Amazon is showing the print length as 1,171 pages rather than the 594 pages it should be once I finish submitting the print files. I am holding off on any broader announcement or marketing until those editions are ready.

This book may seem out of place on a blog seemingly dedicated to software. To me, it is a passion project I felt I needed to get out of my head and onto paper before moving on with my career. I have loved books and history since I was a child, and for as long as I can remember I have wanted to one day write and publish my own. Today is that day.

By some puzzling coincidence, or synchronicity, I happened to finish the final draft a couple of months ago and get it edited and typeset just in time for July 4th. This date carries significant symbolic weight: it commemorates the 250th anniversary of the United States, and 250 years has been proposed as a rough average lifespan for an empire.¹ While I do not relish the prospective decline of my country, it is hard to resist taking advantage of this timing from an analytic and artistic perspective.