An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia is divided into two parts that pose a series of questions. Waging War examines how the conflict was fought and Surviving War measures the impact of the war on civilian life.

The civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s was one phase in the longer black freedom struggle that began when the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619 and continues today. Much of the civil rights movement was seen on television. Because the most notorious events and horrific images were from the Deep South, Virginia's role in the movement tends to be overlooked. It was in Virginia, however, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed more lawsuits than in any other state, and Virginia's program of Massive Resistance, though ultimately futile, showed how to slow the march for integration to a crawl.

By the end of the Civil War, most Americans considered either Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant to be a hero. The time has come for a reassessment of these two men, on whom fell the greatest responsibility for the survival or disintegration of the United States.