From the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, the Old Dominion was dominated by the lives and legends of a dozen great men: John Smith, William Berkeley, William Byrd, George Mason, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Randolph, Robert E. Lee, Thomas Martin, Thomas Nelson Page, James Branch Cabell, and George Marshall.

In a democracy, Uncle Sam s icons are of, by, and for everyone. Included in this examination of icons are essays by such scholars as Michael T. Marsden, Earl F. Bargainnier, Edith Mayo, Valerie Carnes, David Skaggs, Fred E.H. Schroeder, Ray Browne, and others. The examined range from symbols of people (George Washington, the Beatles) to places (historic sites, schoolhouses) to things (CB radio, the pinball machine)."