WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "The House the Rockefellers Built: A Tale of Money, Taste, and Power in Twentieth-Century America" by Robert F. Dalzell and Lee Baldwin Dalzell explores the social and cultural significance of Kykuit, the most famous of Rockefellers' houses in Historic Hudson Valley, New York.

"There is nothing more public yet at the same time more intimate than a house," write the authors, and their book explores Kykuit not only as an architectural creation but also as a mirror of the inner lives and conflicts of America's richest family.

"This is a book about a house, to be sure," said historian and author Joseph J. Ellis, "but more about the conversations taking place inside it, which the Dalzells have recovered with perfect pitch -- conversations about what to do with the greatest fortune in American history."

The original design of the house reflected the conservative views of John D. Rockefeller ("Senior"), the founder of Standard Oil. For him the house had to be a peaceful haven, where the family could reunite and escape from the big city's hustle and toil.

Rockefeller Junior, on the other hand, had a different vision of the house's purpose. His view was that Kykuit should not only shelter the Rockefellers but also reveal their taste for beauty in architecture and art. His first wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller worked with him to shape that vision in important ways.

"An extraordinary human being," Abby Rockefeller was a founder of the Museum of Modern Art, and she and her husband labored "tirelessly" to bring an artistic and culturally vital atmosphere to what was supposed to be a "modest" and understated family home. Inevitably, their efforts led to sharp controversies between Rockefeller Senior and Junior. Ultimately a resolution did occur. The authors write, "If Kykuit was not everything [Junior] and Abby once hoped it would be, it came close enough."

The house was later changed in major ways when Governor Nelson Rockefeller (Abby and Junior's son) added to it a large part of his collection of modern art and sculpture. And in 1991, Kykuit was turned over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation with a mandate to open it to the public. Between 1994 and 2005 more than half a million people visited the house and gardens.

Reviewers have had high praise for "The House the Rockefellers Built." The Dalzells "do an excellent job," comments the New York Times Sunday Book Review. "The perspective provided on America's Guilded Age and on one of its most noted families makes the book well worth reading," The Indianapolis Star wrote. According to Newsweek, the authors "shed welcome light on the endlessly fascinating subject of Americans and wealth ... in a story so well told by the Dalzells, you see the anxieties that dogged their every step." "A fascinating story ... this narrative is convincing throughout," Bloomberg.Com reported. "Page turning stuff" is the verdict of the Chicago Sun-Times.

"The House the Rockefellers Built" is the second book in which Robert and Lee Dalzell trace the significance of the connection between history and home. In "George Washington's Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America," they narrate the story of the place that was closest to Washington's heart and mind always, providing a rich and probing revelation of his personal world.

Robert Dalzell has taught at Williams for more than 30 years and is the Frederick Rudolph '42 -Class of 1965 Professor of American Culture. Lee Dalzell was head of reference services at the Williams College Library until 2003.

Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. To visit the college on the Internet: http://www.williams.edu

Book reviewers: Review copies are available from Henry Holt and Company.

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com. SOURCE Williams College

-0- 12/14/2007