West Virginia statehood was long in the making and its start in politics driven by economic interests, not abolition. Dr. Ambler’s 1910 study of sectionalism in Virginia clearly shows how the East and West of Virginia were always destined to separate. First published in 1910, Ambler’s masterpiece and West Virginia’s first foundation history, has long been out of print. Barbara Rasmussen, professor of public history and director of Cultural Resource Management at West Virginia University, does all West Virginians and historians of American history a truly great service by writing a new introduction to Sectionalism in Virginia, setting Ambler’s grand achievement into the context of its production. “By pointing to the economic and political basis for the differences in Virginia, Professor Ambler created a historical process for studying West Virginia history that asked clearer questions and shunned cultural biases.” —from the Introduction by Barbara Rasmussen.