Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician

by John K. Alexander

Overview

Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician offers a fresh full-life biography of the man Thomas Jefferson once described as the helmsman of the American Revolution. In his study, historian John K. Alexander uses narrative history to argue that Samuel Adams was both America's first professional politician and its first modern politician. Adams, Alexander argues, was an unwavering politician who strove to protect the people's basic rights and who emphasized the importance of virtue, liberty, a sense of duty, and education in fashioning a republican society. John K. Alexander's fresh reading of Adams's record, and a uniquely close look into his personal life, uncovers a masterful politician and a man consistent in his beliefs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461642787
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/13/2004
Series:	American Profiles
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

John K. Alexander is professor at the University of Cincinnati where he specializes in American revolutionary era history. Along with a number of scholarly articles, he has authored Render Them Submissive: Responses to Poverty in Philadelphia, 1760–1800.

Table of Contents

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 Chief Incendiary
Chapter 6: The Helmsman of American Independence
Chapter 7: "Zealous in the Great Cause": Winning Independence
Chapter 8: "The Principles of Liberty": The Massachusetts Scene
Chapter 9: “The Consistent Republican”
Epilogue: “The Patriarch of Liberty”

Editorial Reviews

Alexander (history, U. of Cincinnati) narrates the life of American Revolutionary leader and later Governor of Massachusetts Samuel Adams (1722-1803). Besides the usual conclusions that Adams was a skillful politician who helped bring ordinary people into the political process, the biography examines Adam's contribution to the changing role of women by opening up educational opportunities and his attempts to build a "virtuous society" by protecting constitutional liberties. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

This is a deep, solid, well researched, and highly readable work of history. I am particularly impressed by Alexander's contribution to the history of the Boston 'mob' in the American Revolution. Criticizing the 'myopic' views of those at the time (as well as more recent scholars) who saw the crowd as manipulated and propagandized by Adams, he gives due credit to Adams's role while nonetheless presenting us with a crowd with agency and a mind of its own.

Jesse Lemisch

It is chock full of original research and fresh observations on moments in Massachusetts's revolutionary struggle.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

John K. Alexander has written an intelligent, thoughtful, and concise biography of one of the most important leaders of the revolutionary generation.

Richard E. Ellis

A sparkling biography of a street-level politician who battled in the trenches for the American Revolution.

Paul Green