Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution - Hardcover

Puls, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403975825 ISBN 13: 9781403975829

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2006

Synopsis

Winner of the 2007 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award!

Samuel Adams is perhaps the most unheralded and overshadowed of the founding fathers, yet without him there would have been no American Revolution. A genius at devising civil protests and political maneuvers that became a trademark of American politics, Adams astutely forced Britain into coercive military measures that ultimately led to the irreversible split in the empire. His remarkable political career addresses all the major issues concerning America's decision to become a nation -- from the notion of taxation without representation to the Declaration of Independence. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams all acknowledged that they built our nation on Samuel Adams' foundations. Now, in this riveting biography, his story is finally told and his crucial place in American history is fully recognized.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Puls is the author of Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution, winner of the Fraunces Tavern award, and co-author of Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War. Puls has worked as a journalist for The Detroit News.

Reviews

The argument of this brisk biography is summed up by the subtitle: Sam Adams (1722–1803)—whom most Americans know principally as that jolly guy on the beer bottles—was a major architect of American independence. Indeed, he was the only founding father to argue for independence from England before shots were fired at Lexington. A native Bostonian and brilliant political strategist, Adams led the protests in the 1760s over the Sugar and Stamp Acts, as well as the 1773 Boston Tea Party. After war broke out, he slowly nudged other leaders toward a decisive commitment to independence; Puls quotes Thomas Jefferson's description of Adams as "the fountain of our more important measures." Puls follows Adams's distinguished post-Revolutionary career: he weighed in on the Constitution and served as governor of Massachusetts. But, argues Puls (co-author of Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism, and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War), Adams was mainly interested in local politics, and sought neither fame nor leadership in the early republic. This account lacks some of the everyday details that enliven biographies—in large part, no doubt, because Adams destroyed much of his correspondence. Still, early American history buffs will enjoy Puls's fine study. Illus.
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In this biography of Samuel Adams, Puls notes that Adams was conspicuous in the colonial defiance that culminated in the American Revolution, but his prominence waned after the War of Independence. That, according to Puls, was an effect of Adams' indifference to historical fame. But his American contemporaries were certain of the man's significance, and so was British royal authority, whose attempt to arrest Adams and John Hancock in 1775 sparked the Battle of Lexington. Puls' portrait, therefore, brings forward a figure overlooked in the contemporary flood of histories about the Founders. Recounting Adams' upbringing, Puls depicts Adams as feckless in business; he preferred talking and writing about politics. But if he was financially impractical, Adams proved masterful at political organization and propaganda, leading Boston's resistance to the succession of British revenue acts after 1763. Amid narrative attention to Adams' activity in assemblies, Puls ably dramatizes selected historical scenes such as the Boston Tea Party, giving history readers a restored sense of Adams' critical role in events. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1403975825
• ISBN 13: 9781403975829
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288