Dr. Virginia Hamilton has long been admired for the prose styling of her academic publications and the vigor of her research. In Teddy's Child: Growing Up in the Anxious Southern Gentry Between the Great Wars, the respected historian chronicles her own lineage and discovers the commonalities that transcend the generations. Supplemented by images of family memorabilia, this scrapbook cum thesis explores the foibles, virtues, singularities, and collective tendencies that constitute a heritage and help explain one generation to another.

During and after World War II, VIRGINIA VAN DER VEER HAMILTON became a pioneer in journalism and academe--two careers in which only a small minority of women then participated. Hired as a typist in the Washington, DC bureau of The Associated Press (AP), she rose to become the AP reporter for the "women's beat" at the Truman White House. While a wife and mother, she became the second woman to earn a PhD from the History Department of The University of Alabama. She taught at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, chaired its history department for ten years and wrote eight award-winning books as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, American Heritage, and The New York Times.