charles willson peale fought. he was a militia company from philadelphia on the banks of the delaware with george washington with his musket and his painting kit. son of thell was the governor of connecticut and he watched from a distance the firebombing and burning of charlestown at the battle of bunker hill. he was friends with all of these people. of those stories woven together within the book. that was the fun of writing it. what is the book about you are wondering? i am going to mention for principles or for eldon blocks of this book. book, if you go through the book from front to back, you will never hear me say here is the second building block. it is all buried in there. but this was all on my mind when i was researching and writing the book. the first thing is obvious, i proposed that works of art were essential to the founding of the united states. that is actually quite a bold statement, but i will explain why i think they are utterly important. that is a big one. i will give you a couple examples. to

a painter charles willson peale showed up at his doorstep in 1772. from records,1772 we know the washington is proud to be a member of the british empire, showing off in the background exactly what the empire is, unsurveyed wilderness spreading out to the west and his pocket is the marching orders for when he was in office for the french-indian war. he is proud to be a member of the british empire, serving with the british army in fighting off the french. that is what this represents. the revolutionary war started, charles willson peale is still the guy we rely on. he had several children, naming each of them after a famous artist. you have probably heard of rembrandt, rafael and they all wanted to paint washington. at one point in his career, washington had been sitting all day for various peale sittings. and he said, "i've been well-pealed." [laughter] this was relatively early in washington's military career dated 1779 but is based on a prototype that he did in 1776. this painting shows, the left, you may recognize the symbolism in his victory at

rembrandt peale, one of the older kids, charles willson peale was from philadelphia but traveling all over, new york, philadelphia, washington, d.c. the capital in philadelphia he goes there to paint washington and peale says, wait a minute. this is my city and washington is my man. in order to make deal fieldbus bad, stewart arranges with washington to have charles willson come to the president's house and that is where rembrandt peale paints his one portrait of washington. in the 1790 plus. i did not include him because that was a later generation in i really dislike the picture, too. [laughter] paul: but what he does is make this into a business. this oval one. one in the oval office of the white house, usually behind obama and the back of the oval office. you see the rembrandt peale they are. you try to take the best elements to create the standard likeness with the hopes that everybody would ask him to paint copy after copy. and you can carry this on into the 1840's and 1850's and he can say, for life. the patrons but also entrepreneurs. >> at the portrait gallery in philadelphia