In this stirring biography, Samuel Adams joins the first tier of founding fathers, a rank he
has long deserved. With eloquence equal to that of Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine, and with
a passionate love of God, Adams helped ignite the flame of liberty and made sure it glowed
even during the Revolution's darkest hours. He was, as Jefferson later observed, "truly the
man of the Revolution."

In a role that many Americans have not fully appreciated until now, Adams played a pivotal
role in the events leading up to the bloody confrontation with the British. Believing that
God had willed a free American nation, he was among the first patriot leaders to call for
independence from England. He was ever the man of action: He saw the opportunity to stir
things up after the Boston Massacre and helped plan and instigate the Boston Tea Party,
though he did not actually participate in it. A fiery newspaper editor, he railed ceaselessly
against "taxation without representation."

In a relentless blizzard of articles and speeches, Adams, a man of New England, argued the
urgency of revolution. When the top British general in America, Thomas Gage, offered a general
amnesty in June 1775 to all revolutionaries who would lay down their arms, he excepted only
two men, John Hancock and Samuel Adams: These two were destined for the gallows. It was this
pair, author Ira Stoll argues, whom the British were pursuing in their fateful march on
Lexington and Concord.

In the tradition of David McCullough's John Adams, Joseph Ellis's The Founding Brothers, and
Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin, Ira Stoll's Samuel Adams vividly re-creates a world of
ideas and action, reminding us that none of these men of courage knew what we know today: that
they would prevail and make history anew.

The idea that especially inspired Adams was religious in nature: He believed that God had
intervened on behalf of the United States and would do so as long asits citizens maintained
civic virtue. "We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and
protection," Adams insisted. A central thesis of this biography is that religion in large part
motivated the founding of America.

A gifted young historian and newspaperman, Ira Stoll has written a gripping story about the
man who was the revolution's moral conscience. Sure to be discussed widely, this book reminds
us who Samuel Adams was, why he has been slighted by history, and why he must be remembered.

Featured recently on Glenn Beck's "Founder's Fridays" special. This is in html format.

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