This booklet is designed to help student participants in Close Up's Washington and Williamsburg Special Focus Program make connections between colonial Williamsburg (Virginia) and the present. Students are encouraged to see Williamsburg as a historical backdrop by which to study four fundamental ideas that have shaped the development of the United States: the desire for opportunity, the rights of individual citizens, the concept of equality, and the right to self-government. Each section of the booklet, including one on the founding of Williamsburg, as well as a section on each of the four fundamental ideas, is followed by questions to help students make connections between colonial Williamsburg and the present. (DB)