Preface
Chapter 1: The Failure of Promise
Chapter 2: The People Shall Be Heard
Chapter 3: The Lurking Serpent
Chapter 4: The Politics of Principle
Chapter 5: The Great Incendiary Confronts the Quiet Period
Chapter 6: Britain Miscalculates and the Great Incendiary
Strikes
Chapter 7: The Helmsman of American Independence
Chapter 8: "Zealous in the Great Cause": Winning Independence
Chapter 9: "The Principles of Liberty": The Massachusetts Scene
Chapter 10: "An Idolator of Republicanism" and the Nation's
Constitution
Chapter 11: "The Consistent Republican" in the Turbulent 1790s
Epilogue
Bibliography
John K. Alexander is Professor of History and Distinguished Teaching Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Cincinnati. An associate editor of American National Biography (1999), he is also the author of Render Them Submissive: Responses to Poverty in Philadelphia, 1760-1800 (1980), The Selling of the Constitutional Convention of 1787: A History of News Coverage (1990), and Samuel Adams: America’s Revolutionary Politician (2002).
Students, scholars, and general readers will welcome this important
new study of Samuel Adams. Indeed, this is the best biography yet
of the man Jefferson called "the helmsman of the American
Revolution." Alexander's extensive research supports his view that
Adams, "more than anybody, consistently and ardently worked to
convince Americans of the need for independence" and kept the
revolutionary movement alive during the critical early 1770s.
Alexander (Univ. of Cincinnati) considers Adams the US's first
"modern politician" in that he made politics his lifelong
occupation, grasped the political power of the media, and linked
the towns of Massachusetts through committees of correspondence
that ultimately became an effective intercolonial communications
network. Adams has been eclipsed in US public memory by more famous
founding fathers; many remember him now primarily as the fellow who
brewed beer. But Alexander makes the case that Adams was one of the
most significant of the country's founders and did as much as
anyone to build an American republic dedicated to liberty and
equality. This well-written book includes 51 pages of notes and an
excellent 19-page bibliography to guide further study. Highly
recommended. All university and major public libraries.
*CHOICE*
Even for supposedly objective historians, it has often been
difficult to remain neutral about Sam Adams. He was an inspiring
orator or a demagogue inflaming the mob. He was a brilliant
organizer or an unprincipled manipulator. Alexander gratifyingly
avoids the pitfalls of easy categorization. Still, in a generally
admiring biography, he convincingly asserts two consistent aspects
of Adams’ career. First, he was a political animal, who felt most
alive when organizing, negotiating, and when necessary,
compromising to achieve his goals. Second, he was a true
revolutionary, who viewed the arena of politics as a means for
transforming American society in accordance with republican
principles. His hopes extended beyond simple independence from
Britain. Within those parameters, Alexander examines Adams’
activities during and after the revolution as he dealt with a
variety of issues, including slavery, the rights of women, and
foreign affairs. Alexander also makes clear that Adams was no
austere, cold Robespierre but a man with a vibrant personal life. A
well-done re-examination of the life of an American icon.
*Booklist*
Extremely thorough.
*American History*
Samuel Adams is the most elusive of the Founding Fathers and, until
now, the only one without a first-rate biography. Historian John
Alexander, a careful author and meticulous scholar, has solved the
matter of a decent life history. In this definitive biography,
Alexander not only shows what made Adams tick, but fleshes out his
contributions to the American Revolution. Samuel Adams: The Life of
an American Revolutionary is the book for those who wish to
understand both this extraordinary American Founder and the shadowy
contours of the American Revolution.
*John Ferling, author of Independence and The Ascent of George
Washington*
John Alexander makes the case undeniable: No individual was more
central than Samuel Adams to the coming of the Revolution and the
effort to sustain republican society and government once
independence had been achieved. Engagingly written, Samuel Adams
offers a thorough and page-turning account of Adams's life and his
remarkable times.
*Barbara Clark Smith, author of The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and
Resistance in Revolutionary America*
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