American Connections

The Founding Fathers. Networked.

By: James Burke

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Paperback | 3 July 2007 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
370 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 2.29

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The Signers of the Declaration of Independence are like stuffed birds, museum exhibits from a moment in America's glorious past. They signed what might well have turned out to be their death warrant. And then, in almost every case, they faded from the scene. Who, for instance, remembers Button Gwinnett or Light-horse Harry Lee?

AMERICAN CONNECTIONS brings the signers back to life. Each of the fifty-six chapters begins with a brief, humorous, thumbnail character sketch, in most cases revealing such hidden qualities as feet of clay, a dysfunctional family, a secret lover, financial shenanigans, or political back-stabbing, and so on. One of these connections triggers a series of linked events which, in the end, leads to the modern world, where the signer's name unexpectedly reappears.

Some instances:

- Josiah Bartlett reappears as the character carrying his name in the television show, 'The West Wing.'

- William Whipple is a modern-world agronomist.

- The modern-day Matthew Thornton is a NASA consultant.

- Today's Robert Treat Paine is an oceanographer.

- 20th century Samuel Adams set up the Food and Drugs Act.

The storylines also introduce the reader to over 1,000 historical characters, ranging from kings and statesmen to spies, assassins, royal mistresses, astronomers, submariners, infanticides, con-men, actors, explorers, musicians, artists, inventors, transvestites, heroes, counterfeiters, conspirators, bomb-throwers, pill-makers and a host of others.

The Signers of the Declaration of Independence will never seem the same again.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Biographies & True Stories Biographies Historical, Political and Military Biographies History Regional & National History History of the Americas

Preface August 2, 1776
John Hancock (MA)
Josiah Bartlett (NH)
William Whipple (NH)
Sam Adams (MA)
John Adams (MA)
Robert Treat Paine (MA)
Stephen Hopkins (RI)
William Ellery (RI)
Roger Sherman (CT)
Samuel Huntington (CT)
William Williams (CT)
William Floyd (NY)
Philip Livingston (NY)
Francis Lewis (NY)
Lewis Morris (NY)
Richard Stockton (NJ)
John Witherspoon (NJ)
Francis Hopkinson (NJ)
John Hart (NJ)
Abraham Clark (NJ)
Robert Morris (PA)
Benjamin Rush (PA)
Ben Franklin (PA)
John Morton (PA)
George Clymer (PA)
James Smith (PA)
George Taylor (PA)
James Wilson (PA)
George Ross (PA)
Caesar Rodney (DE)
George Read (DE)
Samuel Chase (MD)
William Paca (MD)
Thomas Stone (MD)
Charles Carroll Of Carrollton (MD)
Thomas Jefferson (VA)
Benjamin Harrison (VA)
Thomas Nelson (VA)
Frank Lee (VA)
Carter Braxton (VA)
William Hooper (NC)
Joseph Hewes (NC)
John Penn (NC)
Edward Rutledge (SC)
Thomas Heyward, J R . (SC)
Thomas Lynch, J R . (SC)
Arthur Middleton (SC)
Button Gwinnett (GA)
Lyman Hall (GA)
George Walton (GA) Fall 1776 and Later
George Wythe (VA)
Elbridge Gerry (MA)
Richard Henry Lee (VA)
Oliver Wolcott (CT)
Matthew Thornton (MA)
Thomas Mckean (DE)
Select Bibliography
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

American Connections

The Founding Fathers. Networked.

At a Glance

Paperback

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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