01/06/2020
Historian Sankovitch (The Lowells of Massachusetts) explores the family connections and revolutionary politics shared by John Hancock, John and Abigail Adams, and Josiah Quincy Jr., in this richly detailed and fluidly written account. Beginning with the 1744 funeral of Rev. John Hancock, whose son John would later serve as governor of Massachusetts and president of the Second Continental Congress, Sankovitch charts the close connections between her central figures—John Hancock married Josiah Jr.’s cousin, Dolly Quincy, and John Adams’s wife, Abigail, was also descended from the Quincy line—and details the leading roles that Hancock and Adams played in writing the Declaration of Independence. For many readers, however, the book’s biggest revelation will be lesser-known figure Josiah Jr., who served as Adams’s co-counsel in the Boston Massacre trial, traveled to England to make a last-ditch effort to avoid armed conflict, and tried, in an attempt thwarted by fatal illness, to convey secret messages to rebel leaders about British intentions. Sankovitch leavens her deeply researched account with wit, and presents a persuasive and entertaining portrait of life in colonial Boston. Revolutionary War buffs will savor this thoughtful addition to popular histories of the period. (Mar.)
Nina Sankovitch pens another tour de force as she dives into the tight-knit web of colonial families that propelled the American Revolution . . . hugely enjoyable . . . American Rebels succeeds marvelously in putting human faces on the American Revolution and showing readers how seismic events rippled outward from door-to-door intimacy. ” —Christian Science Monitor
“American Rebels is a fascinating and richly detailed story of three New England families who emerged from their small world to change ours forever.”
—James Comey, former FBI director and author of A Higher Loyalty
"Sankovitch lays out the evolution of eighteenth-century political thought and shows how it arose within these families and their interconnections. Students of American Revolution history will find a fresh perspective here."
—Booklist
"Sankovitch leavens her deeply researched account with wit, and presents a persuasive and entertaining portrait of life in colonial Boston. Revolutionary War buffs will savor this thoughtful addition to popular histories of the period."
—Publishers Weekly
★ 01/01/2020
Sankovitch (The Lowells of Massachusetts) follows the lives of sons and daughters of the Adams, Quincy, and Hancock families from colonial Braintree, MA, who became influential rebels (and some loyalists). She claims that the common heritage of John Adams, John Hancock, and Josiah Quincy, Jr. (most notably) instilled in their offspring an indomitable sense of duty to community and devotion to liberty. Friends as youths, their lives intertwined in adulthood. Inspired by their independent-thinking forebears, especially the Rev. John Hancock Sr., they had intellect, courage, weaknesses, diplomacy, and indefatigable faith in freedom and self-determination. All of it drove them to resist the British imposition of taxes and punitive measures, and, ultimately, to galvanize inter-colonial support for American independence. Sankovitch highlights the significant impact of Braintree daughters and wives Abigail Smith Adams and Dorothy (Quincy) Hancock, among others, who shared their husbands' beliefs, influenced their work, and endured their trials; she includes the challenges of loyalists Samuel Quincy and Jonathan Sewell (husband of Esther Quincy and close friend to John Adams). VERDICT Sankovitch has woven a compelling, potent chronicle of members of three principal American families that will be valued by readers of American history at all levels.—Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY
2019-12-08
A look at the road to the American Revolution from the perspectives of five patriots.
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, presided over by John Hancock, declared independence from Britain, prompting delegate John Adams to write to his wife, Abigail, that the "Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America." This moment provides a fitting conclusion to this book, in which Sankovitch (The Lowells of Massachusetts: An American Family, 2017, etc.) argues that Hancock, the Adamses, Josiah Quincy Jr., and Dorothy Quincy Hancock together "led the fight for liberty" that culminated in the Revolution. John Hancock, John Adams, and Edmund and Samuel Quincy were childhood companions, the "Boys from Braintree" who attended Harvard together. In the years following the French and Indian War, Hancock, Adams, and Josiah often collaborated in response to British Colonial policies. Hancock and Quincy worked on an official protest against the Stamp Act, Adams was Hancock's defense counsel in the Liberty case, and Hancock and Quincy helped organize the Boston Tea Party. Sankovitch persuasively claims the importance of the somewhat forgotten Josiah, a brilliant lawyer who succumbed to tuberculosis in April 1775 at the age of 31. She is less convincing in asserting the significance of Abigail Smith Adams and Dorothy Quincy Hancock. The author also commits too many factual errors: The Puritans were not separatists. Thomas Hutchinson was not the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in August 1765. The committee charged with writing the Declaration of Independence consisted of five men, not six. John Adams was elected president in 1796, not 1797. Sankovitch also contradicts herself when she notes that Abigail Adams anticipated war with Britain ("inevitable, in her view") after the Boston Tea Party only to write that she and others thought war was "still unthinkable" after that event.
An occasionally enlightening study hampered by the author's missteps.
Sankovitch’s history of the beginnings of the American Revolution focuses on the Adams, Quincy, and Hancock families, even fictionalizing their thoughts. Suzie Althens narrates in an intimate tone befitting the author’s close look at the family members. But her narration takes getting used to. For the most part, her delivery is clear and has a good level of expression and variation, as well as appropriate emphasis and phrasing. But her volume is so soft that it’s almost a whisper. At first, one thinks she’s delivering a series of asides, and one keeps waiting for a normal tone and volume. Still, despite the softness and occasional awkward phrasing, this is a capable rendition of a detailed look at the period. W.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Sankovitch’s history of the beginnings of the American Revolution focuses on the Adams, Quincy, and Hancock families, even fictionalizing their thoughts. Suzie Althens narrates in an intimate tone befitting the author’s close look at the family members. But her narration takes getting used to. For the most part, her delivery is clear and has a good level of expression and variation, as well as appropriate emphasis and phrasing. But her volume is so soft that it’s almost a whisper. At first, one thinks she’s delivering a series of asides, and one keeps waiting for a normal tone and volume. Still, despite the softness and occasional awkward phrasing, this is a capable rendition of a detailed look at the period. W.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
