Not a bad book. Nothing earth shattering. A good overview.

A couple things struck me:

1. The author takes great pains to bring "Light Horse" Harry Lee down to earth, spending alot of time on his financial troubles, his treatment of his wife and children, and even calling into question the usually acknowledged excellence of his military service. He often criticizes Lee's well known flaws without presenting any contravening information. Conversely, when talking about areas in which it is usually acknowledged Lee excelled the author would take great pains to try and develop caveats to almost all of it. In some cases this becomes very strained and not entirely believable.

2. The authors treatment of Harry Lee's son Robert E. Lee however, borders on the hagiographic. There is much to criticize in Robert E. Lee's life, including his military judgment, but little of that was presented.

Disappointing that with the large number of quotations used throughtout the text the author didn't believe footnotes would be helpful. A real lack in my opinion.

Despite that however, the book is well worth a read if the Lee family is of interest to you. ( )

This book details the lives of several of the Lee's. It is difficult to keep track of how each one is related to another, but a handy family tree is included to assist with this issue. This is a good book. It outlines the rise, and fall, and rise, of one of America's original leading families. ( )

A wonderfully written account, and genealogy, of the Lee family of Virginia.

The account begins with the American founder of the Lee family, Richard Lee, who was born in 1618. And it continues through the children of the famed General Robert E. Lee.

The reader is entrusted to facts not otherwise made public about the family before. Both triumph and heartache are shared.

By the end of the book, the reader is sadly smiling and finding there were many hero's within the Lee family, and not merely the famed General.

What's more, it is intriguing to the reader to find a sense of respect and awe, and American pride, that resonates to this very day!

Ties resolutely to several of America's founding father's, the Lees of Virginia are just as much a part of this great nation's history, all the way back to its founding, as any other individual written within our historical texts.

I give The Lees of Virginia my thumbs up award. And I highly recommend it for anyone interested in our nation's history. ( )

This book covers a lot of territory (seven generations) in its 332 pages, starting with Richard Lee, who arrived in the new world from England in about 1639. Unfortunately for the reader, the Lees produced numerous sons, many of whom were prominent in Virginia politics, and foreign affairs, and eventually, nationally. In fact, Richard Henry Lee was instrumental in the founding of the United States, along with several of his brothers, though he had a terrible time trying to maintain good relations with people outside the family. The best known Lee, however, is Robert E., who led the Confederate army to eventual defeat in the Civil War.

Frankly, while the concept of covering the beginning of the Lee dynasty in the new world up through the best-known Lee was a good one, there are simply too many Lees for the reader to keep track of, though there's a lot of interesting information. The other problem is that a good number of the Lees really weren't all that interesting. The author tries to infuse them with character, often by referring to them as "valorous," or sometimes "tragic."

While the book does an admirable job of running through seven generations of a rather prolific family, it's most useful as background for a more in-depth study of a few of the more interesting Lees.