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The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul C. Nagel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 316731
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1
ISBN: 0195305604
Dewey Decimal Number: 929
EAN: 9780195305609
ASIN: 0195305604
Publication Date: December 4, 2006
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Product Description
There are few American families that feature such a collection of characters, both heroic and ignoble, who have made such a mark on history as the Lees. In The Lees of Virginia, Paul Nagel chronicles seven generations of Lees, covering over two hundred years of accolades and scandals. We meet Thomas Lee, who dreamed of America as a continental empire, and his son, Arthur Lee, who created a political storm with his accusations against Benjamin Franklin. Arthur's cousin was Light-Horse Harry Lee, a controversial cavalry officer in the Revolutionary War, whose wild real estate speculation led to imprisonment for debt and finally self-exile in the Caribbean. One of Harry's sons, Henry Lee, further disgraced the family by seducing his sister-in-law and frittering away Stratford, the Lees' ancestral home. It was a third son, Robert E. Lee, who would become the family's redeeming figure, a brilliant tactician still revered for his lofty character and military success. In these and numerous other portraits, Nagel discloses how, from 1640 to 1870, a family spirit united the Lees, making them a force in Virginian and American affairs. This Bicentennial Edition, celebrating the birth of Robert E. Lee in 1807, features a new Preface by the author in which he discusses the ways in which family biographies can contribute to the ongoing debate about what constitutes "family values."br Paul Nagel is a leading chronicler of families prominent in our history. His Descent from Glory, a masterful narrative account of four generations of Adamses, was hailed by Chicago Sun-Times as "a magnificent embarrassment of biographical riches." Now, in The Lees of Virginia, Nagel brings his skills to bear on another major American family, taking readers inside the great estates of the Old Dominion and the turbulent lives of the Lee men and women.
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| Customer Reviews:
A dry and factual account of an influential family lineage... October 18, 2008
Brian Hawkinson (San Jose, CA)
The Lees were instrumental in many of the events that have shaped American History. The Lees, under Thomas Lee, helped form the Ohio Company, which ultimately helped provoke the French and Indian War. Richard Henry Lee led the charge against George Mercer, the Stamp Tax Collector, and led the fierce opposition against the Parliamentary tax (even though he himself had sought out the collector position, losing to Mercer, his rival). RH and his four brothers played a huge role in the American Revolution. Arthur Lee was a diplomat with Benjamin Franklin in England and Paris, even though Lee opposed Franklin in many of his views and ways to gain the loyalty of the French. And, of course, there is Robert E. Lee as leading and influential General of the Civil War. Simply stated, the Lees helped shape America. br / br /On a whole the Lees of Virginia has enough to make for an interesting book, one that has plenty of ammo to keep the read interesting. The problem came in that the book was too long as Nagel wrote on a lot of issues that helped to portray the Lees in their day to day life interaction with one another. I would find myself becoming bored and then, all of a sudden, an interesting story in history would suddenly come up, such as Richard Henry parading an effigy of Mercer towards his execution. br / br /Ultimately, Nagel set out to accomplish what he wanted, which was to not be a history of America, but rather how the Lees interacted with one another, with the history sidelines thrown in. Unfortunately, it was the sidelines that made this book at all interesting, and I wish Nagels would have condensed the book more and stuck to the extremely action packed and interesting impact that the Lees of Virginia had on America, rather than what they wore, where they lived and how they furnished their houses. br / br /The four chapters on Robert E. Lee did a lot on turning the book around and making it a recommend. Learning about the life he was born into, the cards that Light Horse Harry dealt him, and we can see how and why he became the man that he did. I would recommend, if you don't mind a dry, factual account of a family, more so than an individual. br / br /3.5 stars.
History is biography July 12, 2005
Andrew S. Rogers (Seattle, Washington)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book is a fascinating look at a famous and influential family in a time and place I happen to find among the most interesting in all American history: Virginia from its founding until 1870. Within a few decades of the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the first Lee arrived in the Tidewater. For the next three centuries, more or less, the Lees were at or near the center of Virginia's -- and later America's -- history. For readers familiar only with Robert E. Lee, it may come as a shock to realize just how important his family was before and during the Revolution. But even for those for whom that's not a surprise, Paul Nagel's work is still richly rewarding. br / br /That's because "The Lees of Virginia" isn't really a composite biography of each individual member of the vast Lee family. Many of them do receive pretty thorough portraits, of course. But Nagel's main purpose is to chart the connections and relationships within the family, and to explore the influence of the family *as a* family. br / br /In so doing, he paints a fascinating picture of how characteristics and traits passed from generation to generation -- and how, just as importantly, subsequent generations learned from, and tried to do things differently than, their forebears. Perhaps the most interesting contrast here is between the erratic and debt-ridden "Light-Horse Harry" Lee and his son Robert Edward. R.E. Lee, in this analysis, comes across, frankly, as something of a moralistic prig, and one who more or less chained his daughters to their invalid mother's bedside. Nowadays, it's not uncommon to say about someone, "Well, he came from a messed-up family." I have more appreciation for Robert E. Lee's greatness, as well as his human failings, for seeing that he, too, came from a messed-up family. br / br /If I do have a complaint about this book, it might be that ending the narrative at R.E. Lee's death in 1870 seems a little arbitrary. Certainly, General Lee could be seen as the last truly great or influential member of the family. But as Nagel himself mentions, the General's sons and nephews continued to play relatively important roles in the history of Virginia, including service in Congress and as governor of the Commonwealth. Families wax and wane in their influence, as Nagel's book on the Adamses also proved. But I would have been willing to follow Nagel's reporting for another generation or two, just to see what happened. br / br /That aside, though, this is a fine book about an interesting family in interesting times. There are several members of the family I hope to find out more about -- especially Francis Lightfoot Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose relatively reclusive personality -- at least as contrasted to his more attention-seeking brothers -- was especially intriguing to me. I've always thought one sign of a good book is how much it makes you want to explore related topics, and "The Lees of Virginia" delivers in that regard too.
 A Glimpse Into The Life Of A Family July 22, 2003
James Gallen (St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
"The Lees" tells the story of a remarkable American family from its establishment in Virginia to General Robert E. Lee. It gives us a glimpse into their lives and the stages on which they played.pOne theme which runs through the book was that this family had many failures. Although there were shining lights, such as Richard Henry Lee and Robert E. Lee, the more typical Lee was R.E. Lee's father, Gen. Lighthorse Harry Lee, who squandered his wealth, spent time in debtor's prison and ended his life in flight from his creditors.pThe two leading figures of the family are Richard Henry Lee and Robert E. Lee.pRichard Henry was one of the leaders of the call for American Independence. As the sponsor of the Independence Resolution, he would have been a natural for the Committee to draft the Declaration. His opponents in the Virginia delegation blocked his appointment, insisting on the conservative Benjamin Harrison. Less conservative delegates blocked Harrison, with Thomas Jefferson being the compromise choice. Oh, how history could have been different! Richard Henry had a long and, on the balance, distinguished career during which he led the "Lee Party" consisting of himself, his brothers and other Lee relatives.pThe coverage of Robert E. Lee amounts to a biography lite, with an emphasis on his involvement in family matters. There are better sources to learn about him.pMuch of the book consists of quotations from letters and the provisions of wills of many people who would have never been mentioned in a book had they not been related to Richard Henry Lee and Robert E. Lee. This makes portions of the book rather boring.pI picked up two ideas which emerged from this book. One is the tremendous importance of inheritance for the Lees. This may have been exaggerated because wills are documents which survive, but many people's destiny seems to have been dependent on the inheritance of a farm or a plantation. The other is that it seems that, but for a few government positions, few of them ever aspired to any job other than to manage their farms. This may reflect the nature of the economy and may also reflect the social limitations on their class.pOverall this book has some merit. One could read biographies of Richard Henry Lee and Robert E. Lee and forget the rest, but then the reader would miss the story of how this family worked together over the centuries. Make you own choice.
 Amazing May 30, 2000
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
This was a very enlightning book about the Lees history. Some very fascinating stories about the lees and their roots
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