VCU Libraries announces that a limited number of print copies of the new open access edition of The Politics of Annexation: Oligarchic Power in a Southern City are available for sale at cost ($20, domestic shipping included).  

The online version continues to be available for free on VCU Scholars Compass. To order a print copy

VCU Publishing, in conjunction with the University of Richmond, published the new open-access digital edition of The Politics of Annexation on April 6, 2020. Originally written in 1982 by two then-VCU faculty members, John V. Moeser and Rutledge M. Dennis, the book examines the city of Richmond’s annexation of part of Chesterfield County in 1970, its racial motivations, and its political ramifications. Since its release, the new open access edition has been downloaded more than 700 times. 

The open access edition is a newly formatted version of the original 1982 text. It has been edited only for non-substantive style changes and corrections, and features a new introduction by Moeser and Dennis, as well as a new index and a preface by historian Julian Maxwell Hayter, Ph.D., associate professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond. Hayter, author of The Dream is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia, writes in the new preface that the “racial antipathy that led to annexation outlived this story. Richmond’s continuing struggle to overcome segregation has made The Politics of Annexation more relevant over time.” 

Read more about the new open access edition of The Politics of Annexation:

• VCU News (April 6, 2020)
• VCU Libraries (April 6, 2020)
• Chesterfield Observer (April 28, 2020)
• VPM/NPR News (May 20, 2020)