John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot

He was a rich, powerful aristocrat, a merchant king who loved English culture and fashion, and, above all, he was a loyal British subject with ambitions of a lordship and a grand retirement estate in England. There simply was no doubt about it: John Hancock was the least likely man in Boston to start a rebellion. How, then, did this Tory patrician become one of the staunchest supporters of the American Revolution?

John Hancock?s overnight transformation from British loyalist to fiery rebel and first governor of the independent state of Massachusetts is one of the least known but most gripping stories of the American Revolution. Now, acclaimed author Harlow Giles Unger introduces us to the founding father whose name is as recognizable as George Washington?s, but whose thrilling life story is all but untold.

Applying his historical expertise and storytelling gift, Unger details the fascinating life of one of our most extraordinary business and political leaders?the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. As Unger reveals in this unflinching portrait, Hancock was one of the most paradoxical figures of his time. Arguably the wealthiest man in the American colonies, he unabashedly reveled in his riches, adoring all the foppish trappings he could buy. But his commitment to individual liberty eventually transformed him into a fervent revolutionary, venerated equally by his establishment peers at Harvard as he was by the rebels?the Minutemen who did the fighting and the Boston street mobs who declared him their hero even as they burned the homes of other aristocrats. To repay their respect, he sacrificed his fortune and risked death by hanging to win independence from the British. A brilliant orator, he combined his wealth and political skills to unite Boston?s merchant and working classes into an armed might that forced Britain?s vaunted professional army to evacuate Boston, assuring the success of the Revolution.

America?s first great philanthropist and humanitarian, Hancock rebuilt whole neighborhoods devastated by Boston?s periodic fires, fed the poor, sent orphans to college, and bought the city its first fire engine. He rebuilt the city and the magnificent Boston Common after the vicious British devastation, and the people of Massachusetts elected and reelected him their governor for the rest of his life?nine terms in all. Here is the fascinating story of the man with the most recognizable signature in American history. Intertwining Hancock?s story with that of the colorful Samuel Adams, his fellow Bostonian (and Harvard man) who was both comrade in arms and political enemy, Unger etches a finely drawn portrait of one of the Revolutionary War?s greatest?and possibly least known?leaders.