In 1902 a young minister came to preside over a quaint little church in a quiet town in southern Virginia. Taken with the history of the place he soon persuaded his parishoners to restore it in time for the town's tricentennary. After all, wasn't Bruton's Parish the oldest Episcopal church still in use? Hadn't George Washington and Thomas Jefferson prayed within these very walls? The three hundredth anniversary of Virginia's second capitol, Williamsburg, was a huge success drawing celebrants from every station and corner.

But soon thereafter the minister left and the town returned to its sleepy ways. The clock in the church tower stopped because the city fathers decided that $50 a year was too much to pay the man who wound it. Williamsburg seemed destined to slip back into the quiet obscurity from which it had almost roused itself.

Then in 1923 the minister returned to teach at the College of William and Mary, eventually finding his way back into the elevated pulpit of Bruton's Parish. He began to return the building to the "grand simplicity" it enjoyed when the members of the House of Burgesses restored their spiritual energy within its hallowed walls. But the Reverend William Archer Rutherford Goodwin could not contain his vision. He dreamed of restoring the "cradle of liberty" lying quietly in the land between the James and the York Rivers. There was simply too much of America so close at hand. He vowed that Williamsburg must not be allowed to disappear.

Using the services of the Phi Beta Kappa society, founded at William and Mary shortly before the Revolution, Dr. Goodwin contacted one of it's most celebrated members and, as it happened, one of America's richest men.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was no stranger to public causes. A strong believer in putting great wealth to great use he had already given mightily to preserve Europe's war-torn churches, erected a museum for medieval art in upper Manhatten and dedicated Maine's Acadia National Park. Together he and Dr. Goodwin toured Williamsburg and the country parson's quiet vision quickly became his own. In a letter empowering a trusted friend to carry out the details of the Williamsburg "Restoration" as it soon became known Rockefeller wrote: "The purpose of this undertaking is to restore Williamsburg, in so far as it may be possible, to what it was in the old colonial days and to make it a great center for historical study and inspiration." Rockefeller soon took on the project as his "personal cause, hobby, and benevolent mania." Authorizing the expenditure of "...even five millions of dollars..." at the outset he spent over $68 million in his lifetime and his heirs have spent millions more. Their legacy is one of America's most cherished treasures, the recreated city and living history museum of Colonial Williamsburg.

What Philip Kopper and Langdon Clay have done with their book "Colonial Williamsburg" is to provide the reader with a smoothly flowing but swiftly paced journey through the Williamsburg of both yesterday and today. With Koppers text, Clay's magnificent photographs and archival images the book traces Williamsburg's history from its founding in 1699 to its present day incarnation as an echo of its colonial past. They follow Dr. Goodwin and the staff of the newly-founded Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Inc. as they create the largest living history museum in the world.

Different from most "coffee table" books Colonial Williamsburg has as much text as it has pictures and well-written text it is. Robin is afraid that I will use my new-found knowledge to correct the docents should they err. Hey, I'm not that kind of guy. Well, not too much anyway.---JBW

I bought this book the same day I bought Colonial Willamsburg, reviewed above. While we were searching the booksellers database I saw this title pop up. "Ah, here is a find," I thought to myself. A book that combines two of my major interests, American history and cooking. If there had been a guitar thrown in it would have been perfect. As it stood, it was just interesting enough for me to tell Kevin, "Order that one, too." I wasn't quite sure what to expect but with a title like The Colonial Willamsburg Tavern Cookbook I didn't believe I could go too far wrong. When it arrived and I picked it up and quickly leafed through it. Inside I saw beautiful color photographs of both the dishes as prepared and Colonial Williamsburg itself I knew wasn't going to be disappointed.