Mooney (art and art history, U. of Iowa) reverses Jeffersonian theory of the relationship between architecture and construction of the self in eighteenth-century Virginia, studying 25 mansions to offer an analytical examination the elite to and the mansions they created. The author employs patronage methodology to relay the patron's non-passive role in the creation of their manors. Chapter topics include architectural aesthetics and the Colonial dialect, profiling the architectural patron, the impact of dowry, architectural patrons and the building process, learning to become "good mechanics in building," epistemologies of female space, and political power and limits of genteel architecture. Illustrated throughout in black-and-white, this title will prove interesting to social and architectural historians of the period as well as particularly interested members of the general public. Annotation 2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
