These days Samuel Adams is more likely to be known as a brand of beer than a revolutionary leader. While it is true that he ran his father's Boston malt house for a time, he was perhaps the most forceful single figure behind the American Revolution. He was also America's first great political operative, mastering the arts of spin and strategy in ways that future generations of David Axelrods and Lee Atwaters could profitably emulate. Ira Stoll, in his pithy and well-researched biography, sets out to rescue Adams from historical obscurity.

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