Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician

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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Jan 13, 2004 - History - 264 pages
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.
 

Contents

1 The Failure of Promise
1
2 The People Shall Be Heard
19
3 The Lurking Serpent
43
4 The Politics of Principle
65
5 The Chief Incendiary
93
6 The Helmsman of American Independence
127
7 Zealous in the Great Cause Winning Independence
157
8 The Principles of Liberty The Massachusetts Scene
173
9 The Consistent Republican
191
Epilogue
219
Selected Bibliography
225
Index
237
About the Author
249
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About the author (2004)

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.

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