American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution

"Ironically, few, if any, Americans today%E2%80%94even those who call themselves Tea Party Patriots%E2%80%94know the true and entire story of the original Tea Party and the Patriots who staged it." Journalist, historian, and biographer Unger (Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation) turns his attention to the 50 years surrounding the infamous event that resulted in "a nation of coffee drinkers...a declaration of independence, a bloody revolution, and the modern world's first experiment in self-governance." Unger traces the growing anger of colonial businessmen toward British taxation to pay for defense of American soil, from the Molasses Act to the Tea Tax, not the first but fourth attempt to tax the colonies. Unger brings to vivid life familiar historical characters (the incompetent businessman Sam Adams; the wealthy John Hancock, Boston's "merchant king") with lively text and fine reproductions of period maps, paintings, and engravings. Readers will sense foreshadowing of the ultimate irony that "a decade after independence the American government seemed to mirror the very British government that Tea Party Patriots had fought to shatter." Unger's exciting historical account raises questions that are as relevant today as they were in 1773. (Mar. 8)