The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 is a 1982 nonfiction book by Australian historian Rhys Isaac, published by the University of North Carolina Press.

The book describes the religious and political changes over a half-century of Virginian history, particularly the shift from "the great cultural metaphor of patriarchy" to a greater emphasis on communalism.

"[3] Many of the book's original reviewers questioned the absence of “innovative studies of early American religious life" in The Transformation of Virginia.

Rhys begins in 1740 with a description of how Virginia's aristocracy showed their claim on the landscape through “stately English-designed great houses, imposing county courthouses, and elegant parish churches.

Isaac describes how tobacco growing and processing dominated Virginia's economy allowing them to gain great wealth.

The antislavery preaching of some extreme leaders and the subversive practice of admitting black slaves into full church fellowship resulted in cultural conflicts.

Isaac targets the Great Awakening by examining the shift from a rigid colonial structure towards the Revolution's egalitarian rhetoric in The Transformation of Virginia.

The second section, “Movements and Events," illustrates the rise of this “counterculture" of evangelical Christianity and the role that it played in breaking down the hierarchical social structure.