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.
Schiff paints a vivid portrait of a demagogue who was also a decorous man of ideals, acknowledging Adams’s innovative, extralegal activities as well as his personal virtues ... Any book from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Schiff is reason for excitement ... Brisk ... Schiff writes beautifully and lyrical passages provide a great deal of reading pleasure ... Filled with fun facts.
The first two-thirds of The Revolutionary make for riveting, suspenseful and even laugh-out-loud reading ... A vivid and evocative writer, Schiff excels in her portrayal of Boston in its agony and anger ... As a biography, The Revolutionary is incomplete, but as a portrait of an activist, it's superb.
