The Recollections is a rare commodity - a personal chronicle of life in eighteenth century Virginia. Written to preserve memories of his parents for later generations of the family, the Recollections paints a vivid picture of events of John Mason's boyhood and his father's plantation. Gunston Hall, long considered an architectural gem, survives today as testimony to George Mason's intellect and taste. Along with John Mason's words, photographs in the volume provide glimpses of the mansion George Mason built between 1755 and 1759.

Introduction : "An art which shews so much" -- Defining the prodigy house : architectural aesthetics and the colonial dialect -- "Blind stupid fortune" : profiling the architectural patron -- "Reason reascends her throne" : the impact of dowry -- "Each rascal will be a director" : architectural patrons and the building process -- Learning to become "good mechanics in building" -- Epistemologies of female space : early Tidewater mansions -- Political power and the limits of genteel architecture

Explores the family life of the Founding Fathers, providing intimate portraits of the households of such revolutionaries as George Mason, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.

From the New York Times bestselling author, the larger than life story of America's fifth president, who transformed a small, fragile nation into a powerful empire In this compelling biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals the epic story of James Monroe (1758-1831)-the last of America's Founding Fathers-who transformed a small, fragile nation beset by enemies into a powerful empire stretching "from sea to shining sea." Like David McCullough's John Adams and Jon Meacham's American Lion, The Last Founding Father is both a superb read and stellar scholarship-action-filled history in the grand tradition.