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Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
Revolutionary: Samuel Adams | Stacy Schiff
4 posts | 6 read | 1 reading | 4 to read
A revelatory biography from a Pulitzer Prize-winner about the most essential Founding Father-- the one who stood behind the change in thinking that produced the American Revolution. "A glorious book that is as entertaining as it is vitally important." --Ron Chernow "A beautifully crafted, invaluable biography...Schiff ingeniously connects the past to our present and future, underscoring the lessons of Adams while reclaiming our nation's self-evident truths at a moment when we seemed to have forgotten them." --Oprah Daily Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, "Samuel Adams was the man." With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution. A singular figure at a singular moment, Adams amplified the Boston Massacre. He helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party. He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts he became the most wanted man in America: When Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason. In The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Schiff brings her masterful skills to Adams's improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies. Arresting, original, and deliriously dramatic, this is a long-overdue chapter in the history of our nation.
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review
mjtwo
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Mehso-so

3-17 Mar 23 (audiobook)
Really only listened to this because it was on Obama‘s list. It was interesting to a point but I agree with other reviewers‘ comments that it just falls away once the war actually begins. Surely Adams was doing something during that period? It seems he inspired a revolution but then fell very much out of favour when it came to fighting a war and founding a nation. I tuned out too often and found myself frequently rewinding.

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review
JoeMo
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Pickpick

I‘ll call this a weak pick…it was great to learn about Samuel Adams‘s potent influence leading up to the Revolutionary War; this book makes the case he should be considered among the three or four true fathers of the US revolution. The book seems to fall off a cliff once the revolution actually starts though, despite the fact Adams lived on for several more decades.

JoeMo It referenced that he was a hardcore idealist, which although influential in provoking hearts and minds to declare independence, it was a trait that was relatively ill-suited for actually waging war and trying to build an independent nation, but the book failed to say much of anything regarding what Adams did during this these time periods. A more effective biography would provide more information and details even if Adams took more of a backseat 13mo
33 likes1 comment
review
behudd
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Mehso-so

⭐️⭐️⭐️After reading presidential biographies the last few years, this seems pretty on par with those - some parts I found very interesting (like the background info on the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party), others I totally missed because I zoned out listening to the audio.So I appreciate it for what it was, but biographies are never going to be a favorite genre of mine. I do recommend it, tho, if you‘re interested in Revolutionary War history.

quote
behudd
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“Samuel Adams delivered what may count as the most remarkable second act in American life.”

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