Book : Samuel Adams A Life - Stoll, Ira

-Titulo Original : Samuel Adams A Life

-Fabricante :

Free Press

-Descripcion Original:

The gripping story of the man who was the American Revolution’s moral compass-Ira Stoll tells readers who Samuel Adams was, why he has been forgotten, and why he must be remembered.Thomas Jefferson called Samuel Adams “truly the man of the Revolution.” Adams, filled with religious fervor, inspired others to fight on and overcome the challenges of the Revolutionary War. He was the editor of the influential Boston Gazette, planner of the Boston Tea Party, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and yet, he is largely ignored and unknown today. Understanding the leading part Adams played in building and sustaining support for the revolutionary cause gives readers new insight into the way religion motivated the founding of America. Review In order to understand the moral and religious roots of Americas zeal for liberty, you need to know and appreciate Samuel Adams. Ira Stoll does a glorious job bringing to life this agitated and revolutionary apostle of liberty, whose passions still reverberate in our nations soul. This book will help you understand our founding, and our future. -- Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and Einstein: His Life and UniverseSamuel Adams was a life-long journalist who left a meager paper trail; a pious believer who was a flaming radical; the jumpstarter of our independence whom we have unaccountably lost track of. Ira Stoll lets the Founding Firebrand shine once more. -- Richard Brookhiser, author of George Washington on LeadershipIra Stoll here manages the daunting task of anchoring Sam Adams in his own time yet making him relevant to ours. A triumph of learning and understanding. -- James Grant, author of John Adams: A Party of One About the Author Ira Stoll was vice president and managing editor of The New York Sun, which he helped to found. He has been a consultant to the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, an editor of the Jerusalem Post, managing editor and Washington correspondent of the Forward, editor of Smartertimes , and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He is a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Harvard College. He lives in New York City. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Samuel AdamsA LifeBy Ira StollFree PressCopyright © 2009 Ira StollAll right reserved.ISBN: 9780743299121PreludePillar of Fire by Night1777Let us awaken then, and evince a different spirit, -- a spirit that shall inspire the people with confidence in themselves and in us, -- a spirit that will encourage them to persevere in this glorious struggle, until their rights and liberties shall be established on a rock.-- Samuel Adams, 1777Of all the difficult moments in the American Revolution, one of the most desperate for the revolutionaries was late September 1777. British troops controlled New York City. The Americans had lost the strategic stronghold of Fort Ticonderoga, in upstate New York, to the British in July. In Delaware, on September 11, troops led by General George Washington had lost the Battle of Brandywine, in which two hundred Americans were killed, five hundred wounded, and four hundred captured. In Pennsylvania, early in the morning of September 21, another three hundred American soldiers were killed or wounded and one hundred captured in a British surprise attack that became known as the Paoli Massacre.Washingtons troops were suffering from what one delegate to Congress called fatigue occasioned by the bad rainy weather & long night marches. The rain had soaked the American armys ammunition, making it useless. The American troops would spend the coming winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, subsisting on firecakes made of flour and water, and leaving bloody footprints in the snow for lack of shoes; already one thousand of Washingtons roughly nine thousand troops were barefoot. The delegates to Congress doubted their own generals. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Marylan