George Mason

The Founding Father Who Gave Us the Bill of Rights

By: William G. Hyland Jr.

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

George Mason was a short, bookish man who was a friend and neighbor of athletic, broad-shouldered George Washington. Unlike Washington, Mason has been virtually forgotten by history. But this new biography of patriot George Mason makes a convincing case that Mason belongs in the pantheon of honored Founding Fathers.

Trained in the law, Mason was also a farmer, philosopher, botanist, and musician. He was one of the architects of the Declaration of Independence, an author of the Bill of Rights, and one of the strongest proponents of religious liberty in American history. In fact, both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison may have been given undue credit for George Mason's own contributions to American democracy.

©2019 William G. Hyland, Jr. (P)2019 Vibrance Press

The Quintessential Founding Father

If you love liberty, you will love this book. the chapters on the drafting period, ratification period, and bill of rights adoption, by themselves make this book worth purchasing. Mason understood liberty in practice, as opposed to guys like Madison who believed that certain checks were not needed (such as a bill of rights).

The only gap I found in the book was masons essential contribution to article V of the COTUS (see mark levins - the liberty amendments). The author instead focuses on his influence on the presidency.

Moreover, he (arguably) is the father of the anti-federalists, and clearly inspired men like Brutus (Robert Yates).

This author is the real deal. He compares and cites a ton of other historians (showing that he has read a ton on this subject). Overall this book was outstanding.

Great listen

This book is a great listen read very well about a forgotten man and his part in the American revolution and formation of the US Constitution

A Forgotten, Yet Stalwart American Patriot

This book is an excellent story of George Mason. It is a shame that he is a lesser known individual in American history. His ideas and influence clearly underlie much of the more well-known Founders thinking and writings.

Another piece to the founding fathers puzzle

Throughout George Masons life he was very much an influence on the lives of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.

It was a complicated Relationship with four other Virginians, at the end of the day some might say he had the greatest impact that touches all of our lives to this day. To all I would highly recommend reading this book, listening to the audiobook. You will become much more appreciative of George Mason, some say the forgotten founding father. A man who influenced, our founding documents, more than most, he was the sage of Gunston Hall

Amazing

This author is excellent. I wish it was longer. If you are reading this , you need to get this book. Don’t wait, it’s so good.

The most influential founder

One of the most influential founders with hardly any name recognition. Mason predicted a lot of the problems we would face in modern times. He tried to prevent it through his tenacity and philosophical rhetoric. Mason was not a traveler or really a politician. He was a true believer of liberty as he would write in Virginia’s declaration of independence “That all Men are created equally free & independent, & have certain inherent natural Rights, of which they cannot by any Compact, deprive or divest their Posterity….” It would later be copied and edited by Thomas Jefferson. I believe the entire reason he even was in politics is because he saw it as a necessary evil, and tried and as hard to check it. He failed to get the other states on board to abolish slavery but his push at the national and Virginia conventions showed he was adamant on trying to prevent future civil conflicts. As for the audible book, it was very well written and the performance of the speaker was very well done. I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in learning about one of the greatest philosophical founders of American history.