RADICAL OF THE REVOLUTION: SAMUEL ADAMS

by Margaret Green ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 1971

Organizer, propagandist, and passionate democrat, Sam Adams set the American Revolution in motion and was then shunted aside by the more conservative of the founding fathers and posterity alike. Times have changed, and the rough-hewn radical presented here will be a sympathetic character to today's young readers. The theme is Sam's precocious and dogged advocacy of revolution. Appropriately enough, the first scene is his Harvard graduation which he marked with a speech in defense of civil disobedience. Uninterested in steady employment and careless of his appearance, Adams devoted himself to politicizing Boston's working class -- first in the taverns and later in his underground newspaper, the Advertiser. The author is candid about his occasional excesses, such as his distortion of the facts of the Boston massacre to provide anti-British propaganda. Similar material is covered elsewhere -- notably in Olga Hall-Quest's Guardians of Liberty, but this new biography gives a fuller, more intimate account and should prove a useful complement. The narrative is rather highly dramatized and includes a good deal of dialogue, but it is well paced, readable and certainly relevant with a capital R.

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION