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 unraveled the colonists' close bonds with the mother country... The book also features an almost tactile account of what it was like to live in Boston in the eighteenth century." -New Criterion

"A terrific book. Barbier's meticulous research sheds light on how one of the wealthiest men of his time made himself into a man of the people-a politician whose genuine capacity for sensing the popular mood commanded fierce loyalty, even as he clashed with both Loyalists and radical Patriots. John Hancock was an important figure, and this biography helps restore him to his proper place." -Robert J. Allison, author of The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction

In this spirited account of John Hancock's life, Brooke Barbier depicts a patriot of fascinating contradictions: a child of privilege who became a voice of the common people, uncomfortable with radicalism yet a promoter of revolution. Hancock spoke for and to Americans ambivalent about independence, bringing them along.

The man behind the famous signature was one of New England's most prominent politicians, earning a place on Britain's most-wanted list and the derisive nickname King Hancock. Yet he joined the revolution cautiously, and after 1776 his ever-moderating disposition proved a frequent asset. Barbier shows Hancock appealing to southerners and northerners, Federalists and Anti-Federalists. He steadied the fractious Second Continental Congress and parlayed with the great powers of Europe. As governor of Massachusetts, Hancock convinced its delegates to back the federal Constitution and calmed the fallout from Shays's Rebellion.

An insightful study of leadership in the revolutionary era, King Hancock traces a moment when passion was on the side of compromise and accommodation was the basis of profound social and political change.

About the Author
Brooke Barbier is a public historian with a doctorate in American history from Boston College. The author of Boston in the American Revolution: A Town versus an Empire, she founded and operates Ye Olde Tavern Tours, a popular guided outing along Boston's renowned Freedom Trail.

Reviews
A concise and highly readable biography...[Hancock's] legacy is very much worth our remembering. -- William Anthony Hay * Wall Street Journal *
[An] approachable biography...American history buffs will enjoy the immersive portrait of Boston's Revolutionary era. * Publishers Weekly *
King Hancock is a vastly enjoyable work of popular history that wears its impressive scholarship lightly. It deftly explains the wider forces that unraveled the colonists' close bonds with the mother country... The book also features an almost tactile account of what it was like to live in Boston in the eighteenth century. -- Marc M. Arkin * New Criterion *
Brings careful nuance and deep historical context to a figure known by most Americans only for his larger-than-life signature on the Declaration of Independence...Hancock emerges as a fully fleshed-out human being, replete with virtues and flaws both typical and atypical for his time, and driven not just by high ideals and momentous events but also by the mundane trivialities, petty hardships, and simple pleasures of eighteenth-century life. -- Donald F. Johnson * American Historical Review *
A terrific book. Barbier's meticulous research sheds light on how one of the wealthiest men of his time made himself into a man of the people-a politician whose genuine capacity for sensing the popular mood commanded fierce loyalty, even as he clashed with both Loyalists and radical Patriots. John Hancock was an important figure, and this biography helps restore him to his proper place. -- Robert J. Allison, author of The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
Barbier has written a fine biography, carefully guiding readers through Hancock's life, his political career, and the world around him. In our politically polarized times, this founding father's legacy of political moderation is sure to resonate. -- Benjamin L. Carp, author of The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution
In this lively and insightful biography, Barbier illuminates John Hancock's mastery of popular politics in an age of revolution. Drawing on a rich and profound knowledge of eighteenth-century Boston, she recovers the social world of a leader whose skills extended far beyond his celebrated penmanship. -- Alan Taylor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804
An exuberant biography, well told and spirited. As we follow John Hancock through the turmoil that led to the Revolution, we see a man guided more by a desire to charm, entertain, and curry favor with both elites and ordinary people than by a rigid commitment to a specific politics or ideology. In Barbier's hands Hancock's life unfolds as dramatic theater. -- Sharon V. Salinger, author of Taverns and Drinking in Early America
Hancock's success might seem inevitable given his resources, his canny political sensibility, and just plain good fortune. Yet, as Ms. Barbier suggests, biography and history are contingent. What looks inescapable did not seem so to those who struggled to create a new country. -- Carl Rollyson * New York Sun *


Awards
Winner of New England Society Book Award 2024 (United States) and James P. Hanlan Book Award 2024 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9780674301511
Author Brooke Barbier
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Weight(grams) 331g
Dimensions(mm) 210mm * 140mm * 21mm