John Hancock: first to sign, first to invest in America’s independence DB132603

Author: Randall, Willard Sterne

Reading Time: 7 hours, 15 minutes

Read by: Steve Hendrickson

Subjects: Biography of Heads of State and Political Figures, U.S. History, Government and Politics

“A contemporary of Samuel Adams, John Adams, George Washington, and the Marquis de Lafayette, Hancock’s contacts read like a who’s who of the American Revolution. But shockingly little has been written about the man himself — and current biographies tend to over-rely on critical portrayals by his political opponents. John Hancock the story of a man who deserves far more acknowledgment for his involvement in the American Revolution than previously credited — and award-winning scholar Willard Sterne Randall is determined to give him his due at last. Born to relatively modest means, Hancock was sent to live with his wealthy uncle and aunt as a child, who raised him as their own and prepared him to take over the family company. An incredibly successful businessman, Hancock began to get involved in politics in the mid-1760s. He quickly rose in the ranks, eventually serving as the president of the Continental Congress and the first governor of Massachusetts. John Hancock details all of the major moments in the Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party to the battles of Lexington and Concord to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Hancock’s actions fundamentally altered each of these events — and ultimately the course of the United States — in ways never taught in the history books. Randall also dives into less-known parts of Hancock’s life with nuance and compassion, including his education and controversial work with Harvard; his long courtship and complicated marriage to Dorothy Quincy; and his close relationship and eventual bitter rivalry with Samuel Adams. John Hancock was immensely popular in Massachusetts at the time of the Revolution, but his lack of personal writings have allowed him to be pushed aside in favor of easier biographies to tell. Through extensive research, Randall aims to restore Hancock to his rightful place, celebrated for his achievements as one of our Founding Fathers at last.” — Goodreads. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York, NY : Penguin Random House, 2025.

This book can be found on Bookshare at the following link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/6590359?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUpvaG4lMkJIYW5jb2NrJTI1M0ElMkJmaXJzdCUyQnRvJTJCc2lnbiUyNTJDJTJCZmlyc3QlMkJ0byUyQmludmVzdCUyQmluJTJCQW1lcmljYSUyNTI2JTI1MjMzOSUyNTNCcyUyQmluZGVwZW5kZW5jZSUyQg

BARD annotation The gunfighters: how Texas made the West wild DB129769 Author: Burrough, Bryan Reading Time: 12 hours, 53 minutes Read by: Fred Sanders Subjects: U.S. History, True Crime, Social Sciences

“The “Wild West” gunfighter is such a stock figure in our popular culture that some dismiss it all as a corny myth, more a product of dime novels and B movies than a genuinely important American history. In fact, as Bryan Burrough shows us in his dazzling and fast-paced new book, there’s much more below the surface. For three decades at the end of the 1800s, a big swath of the American West was a crucible of change, with the highest murder rate per capita in American history. The reasons behind this boil down to one word: Texas. Texas was born in violence, on two fronts, with Mexico to the south and the Comanche to the north. The Colt revolver first caught on with the Texas Rangers. Southern dueling culture transformed into something wilder and less organized in the Lone Star State. The collapse of the Confederacy and the presence of a thin veneer of Northern occupiers turned the heat up further. And the explosion in the cattle business after the war took that violence and pumped it out from Texas across the whole of the West. The stampede of longhorn cattle brought with it an assortment of rustlers, hustlers, gamblers, and freelance lawmen who carried a trigger-happy honor culture into a widening gyre, a veritable blood meridian. When the first newspapermen and audiences discovered what good copy this all was, the flywheel of mythmaking started spinning. It’s never stopped. The Gunfighters brilliantly sifts the lies from the truth, giving both elements their due. And the truth is sufficiently wild for any but the most unhinged tastes. All the legendary figures are here, and their escapades are told with great flair-good, bad, and ugly. Like all great stories, this one has a rousing end-as the railroads and the settlers close off the open spaces for good, the last of the breed, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, really do get on a boat for South America, ending their era in a blaze of glory. Burrough knits these histories together into something much deeper and more provocative than simply the sum of its parts. To understand the truth of the Wild West is to understand a crucial dimension of the American story.”– Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Penguin Random House, 2025. Bookshare This book can be found on Bookshare at the following link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/6582209?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPVRoZSUyQmd1bmZpZ2h0ZXJzJTI1M0ElMkJob3clMkJUZXhhcyUyQm1hZGUlMkJ0aGUlMkJXZXN0JTJCd2lsZCUyQg