A chronicle of the Adams, Quincy and Hancock families and how they helped spark the American Revolution.

Awardedthe 2021New England Society in the City of New York Book Award for Best Historical Nonfiction,American Rebels explores for the first time the intimate connections between three families in the lead up to the American Revolution. Sankovitch examines the intertwined lives ofJohn Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Quincy Jr, Abigail Smith Adams, and Dorothy Quincy Hancock, and argues for the distinct roles each played in fomenting revolution. Theirtrajectory from loyal British subjects to American rebels was forged in childhood; andtheir deeply heldconvictions, founded in community, fueled theircollaborationsduring the fraught and violent years leading upto the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776.Sankovitch presents in vivid detail, backed up by extensive and new research, the ties that bound these men and women together (including faith, love, ambition, and envy) and drove them to rebel against England, while also demonstrating how the desire for independence cut across class lines, and how families could be divided, rebels versus loyalists, in pursuing commonly-held goals of opportunity, liberty, and stability.