The Grand Incendiary

John Adams, the second President of the United States and a second cousin of Samuel Adams, claimed, “The Revolution was Sam’s personal creation.” Yet, how did this man, who had failed at business and mishandled his inheritance, emerge in middle age as one of the most important of America’s Founding Fathers?

Noel Gerson, in this brilliantly researched study, charts the life of Adams and explains how he arose to become a principal coordinator of the rebellion, whose genius as a propagandist has seldom been equaled.

While other figures like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson may be more well-known today, during the years of the American Revolution and for many years afterward, Samuel Adams was regarded as the first citizen and a leading statesman of the new nation. Such was his influence that on the eve of the Revolution, General Thomas Gage put a price on Adams’ head and declared him “the most dangerous man in the New World.”

The Grand Incendiary brings the story of this remarkable but overlooked Founding Father back to life. It provides a unique insight into the machinery behind the War for Independence and the power of one man’s persuasiveness.