
John Hancock
First to Sign, First to Invest in America's Independence
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Narrated by:
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Steve Hendrickson
About this listen
A compelling, intimate portrait of John Hancock, going beyond the flamboyant signature to reveal the pivotal role that he had in the American Revolution
A contemporary of Samuel Adams, John Adams, George Washington, and the Marquis de Lafayette, Hancock had a list of contacts that read like a who’s who of the American Revolution. But shockingly little has been written about Hancock himself. John Hancock tells the story of a man who deserves far more credit for his contribution to the American Revolution than he previously received—and award-winning scholar Willard Sterne Randall is determined to give him his due at last.
Born into relatively modest means, Hancock was sent to live with his wealthy uncle and aunt as a child. The couple raised him as their own and prepared him to take over the family company. A remarkably successful businessman, Hancock got 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 lesser-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 enjoyed great popularity in Massachusetts during the Revolution, but he left behind few personal writings, making it hard to tell his story. Through extensive research, Randall aims to restore Hancock to his rightful place, celebrated for his achievements as one of our Founding Fathers at last.
©2025 Willard Sterne Randall (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Deploying meticulous research, sharp analysis, and the same narrative verve he has used to illumine Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton, Willard Sterne Randall has produced a biography that finally elevates John Hancock from bold-face name to crucial American founder. Randall will not disappoint readers expecting a dramatic recounting of Hancock’s “signature moment,” but this book amplifies his extraordinary life both before and after the Declaration of Independence. We cannot possibly mark the nation’s semi quincentennial without learning more about the man who made its founding document a billboarded testament to his own personal courage.”—Harold Holzer, winner of the Lincoln Prize, author of Brought Forth on This Continent
“A concise, insightful look at one of America’s more neglected founding fathers. Willard Sterne Randall’s latest is another important contribution to our understanding of the financial origins of the American Revolution and the republic it produced.”—Randall Woods, author of John Quincy Adams
“John Hancock pledged his life, his considerable fortune, and his sacred honor to the cause of American independence. Although in his day a highly respected national leader and an extremely popular Massachusetts governor, Hancock remains a comparatively neglected Founding Father. Randall's highly readable biography is therefore a splendid gift to celebrations of the 250th birthday of the United States.”—Richard Sylla, New York University, author of Alexander Hamilton: The Illustrated Biography
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Story
Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away? Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But Maurice began to study nautical navigation. Maralyn made detailed lists of provisions. And in June 1972, they set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank.
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Interesting survival story
- By Mark on 07-13-25
By: Sophie Elmhirst
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The Gunfighters
- How Texas Made the West Wild
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Hits the target
- By S. S. Felzenberg on 06-09-25
By: Bryan Burrough
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Death at the White Hart
- A Novel
- By: Chris Chibnall
- Narrated by: Jessica Gunning
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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A man is found dead, tied to a chair in the middle of the road, a stag’s antlers on his head. The gruesome scene stuns the town, especially when the victim is identified: Jim Tiernan, who ran the White Hart pub. Tiernan’s pub is at the center of village life and he knew everyone’s secrets. Detective Nicola Bridge grew up in Fleetcombe and has now returned, for the good of her family, from a life away in Liverpool. DC Harry Ward is ten years younger and, despite his newcomer status, determined to earn Nicola’s trust.
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awful
- By SB on 06-18-25
By: Chris Chibnall
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An Exercise in Uncertainty
- A Memoir of Illness and Hope
- By: Jonathan Gluck
- Narrated by: Jonathan Gluck
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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At age thirty-eight, Jonathan Gluck, a new father with a promising journalism career, was shocked to learn he had multiple myeloma, a rare, incurable blood cancer. He was told he had eighteen months to live. That was more than twenty years ago. Gluck isn’t just something of a medical miracle. He’s also part of a growing population. Thanks to revolutionary medical advances, many cancers and other serious illnesses are no longer death sentences but chronic diseases people can often live with for years.
By: Jonathan Gluck
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Typewriter Beach
- A Novel
- By: Meg Waite Clayton
- Narrated by: Gilli Messer
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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1957. Isabella Giori is ten months into a standard seven-year studio contract when she auditions with Hitchcock. Just weeks later, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a tiny Carmel cottage, waiting and dreading. Meanwhile, next door, Léon Chazan is annoyed as hell when Iz interrupts his work on yet another screenplay he won’t be able to sell, because he’s been blacklisted. Soon, they’re together in his roadster, speeding down the fog-shrouded Big Sur coast.
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Felt like I was back in Hollywood 1050s
- By Amazon Customer on 07-11-25
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American Colonies: The Settling of North America
- Penguin History of the United States, Book 1
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first volume in the Penguin History of the United States series, edited by Eric Foner, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America, from the native inhabitants from millennia past through the decades of Western colonization and conquest and across the entire continent, all the way to the Pacific coast.
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Excellent ..
- By aintbuyinit on 09-03-18
By: Alan Taylor