Brooke Barbier

A rollicking portrait of the paradoxical patriot, whose measured pragmatism helped make American independence a reality. Americans are surprisingly more familiar with his famous signature than with the man himself. In this spirited account of John Hancock's life, Brooke Barbier depicts a patriot of fascinating contradictions—a child of enormous privilege who would nevertheless become a voice of the common folk;...

A concise and highly readable biography…[Hancock's] legacy is very much worth our remembering. -Wall Street Journal King Hancock is a vastly enjoyable work of popular history that wears its impressive scholarship lightly. It deftly explains the wider forces that unravelled the colonists' close bonds with the mother country. The book also features an almost tactile account of what it was...