"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. He employed every tool available to rally a town,...

The American Revolution was not inevitable, nor was it a unanimous cause. It pitted neighbors against one another, as loyalists and colonial rebels faced off for their lives and futures. Through the remarkable lives of the first Americans, this book reveals the contentious arguments that turned friends into foes and the land into a war zone. From the riots over a child's murder that led to the Boston Massacre, to the Continental Army's first victory...