In “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” a movie based on James Michener’s novel about the Korean War, Adm. George Tarrant watches his pilots fly off from the aircraft carrier’s pitching deck to attack the enemy and asks, “Where do we get such men?” Good question. Where did they come from, the men and women who founded this country, fought and died in its wars, suffered privation, often struggled through crisis after crisis, and created a land of opportunity never before seen in human history? Take Colonial Virginia as an example. How could a backwater colony of the British Empire produce an array of men like George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Mason? Throw in luminaries from the other colonies—Franklin, Adams, and Hamilton, among others—and we find ourselves gobsmacked by the talent and genius of that generation. Few of these Founders had won formal university degrees, yet they …