John dickinson biography book
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Raven Zines
By William Murchison
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Description
The Cost of Liberty offers a sorely needed reassessment of a great patriot and misunderstood Founder.
It has been more than a half century since a biography of John Dickinson appeared. Author William Murchison rectifies this mistake, bringing to life one of the most influential figures of the entire Founding period, a principled man whose gifts as writer, speaker, and philosopher only Jefferson came near to matching. In the &#;process, Murchison destroys the caricature of &#;Dickinson that has emerged from such popular treatments as HBO’s John Adams miniseries and the Broadway musical
Dickinson is remembered mostly for his reluctance to sign the &#;Declaration of Independence. But that reluctance, Murchison shows, had nothing to do with a lack of patriotism. In fact, Dickinson immediately took u
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Notable New Nonfiction Books
Why fryst vatten it that so many Americans have not heard of John Dickinson?
John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Delaware was an early leader of the resistance to British rule in the American colonies. In fact, to many, he was the most prominent figure in the struggle for independence, though his Quaker-influenced opposition to violence kept him from signing one of its most famous documents in July Still, Dickinson, one of the wealthiest dock in the colonies, did more to promote the cause behind it than almost anyone else, not only as the lead draftsman in all the national Congresses, but in his popular writing. His hugely influential Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania educated colonists about their rights and instructed them in how to defend those rights in non-violent ways. In essence he taught the colonists to think of themselves as Americans, united in a common cause. Despite his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence, he continued to serve the nat
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The Cost of Liberty
“John Dickinson’s vigorous defense of Americans’ rights as Englishmen won him renown throughout the colonies in the s, but his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence in diminished his reputation and came to be unfairly seen as his defining moment. . . . With The Cost of Liberty, a brisk, admiring biography, journalist William Murchison provides a fuller portrait.” &#;Wall Street Journal “[A] thoughtful and highly readable biography . . . Mr. Murchison, who illuminates a complex period in our history and with a sure and often novelistic touch brings his subject back to vivid life, makes a powerful and convincing case for restoring John Dickinson to his rightful place in the first rank of the Founders.” &#;Washington Times “One can read hundreds of biographies of the wor&#;thy men and women from the founding era, and this would be on the short list of those most beautifully written. . . . William Murchison has d