professor wendi teacher george mason? >> i teach courses in the revolution, the early american republic, the local map that, founding mothers and fathers, women's history to this gimmick ph.d. from yale, grew up in st. louis. when did you get interested in the revolutionary period? >> wow. i think i was always attracted by the founding era by the idea that americans made themselves into a nation, made themselves into a new people that they started from scratch but it was a country that created the institution's drawing on the historical lessons and their own experience but creating something new and different i was in graduate school coley would love to say earlier i read biographies of the founding fathers and the americans so hysterically i guess you could say i've always been tested. >> you are teaching our george mason university on the campus. give a thumbnail sketch of who george mason was. >> of the forgotten founder. yes, george mason was the primary author of the virginia declaration of rights, and the virginia d