The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution |
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The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution
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by Alfred F. Young
Sales Rank: 406712
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List Price: $18.00
$16.20
At Amazon
on 6-20-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 262 pages
Published by: Beacon Press March 17, 2000
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0807054054
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0807054055
Book Dimensions:
8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 14.2 ounces
Product Review
On December 16, 1773, some 150 men boarded three ships docked at Griffin's Wharf. Dressed as Mohawks, their faces darkened with soot, the men cracked open chests of tea and threw them into Boston Harbor. What began as a protest against the duty on tea became an icon of the American Revolution. But what did the Boston Tea Party mean to its participants? Indeed, what did the Revolution mean to the ordinary person? In The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, Alfred F. Young tells the story of George Robert Twelves Hewes, who was involved in several events in Boston during the Revolution. In 1835, when Hewes was in his 90s, he was celebrated as one of the last survivors of the Tea Party.
The Shoemaker and the Tea Party comprises two linked essays. The first is about Hewes (whom Young describes as "a nobody who briefly became a somebody in the Revolution and, for a moment near the end of his life, a hero"), his memories, and what these memories reveal about the meaning of the Revolution for him. "For a moment he was on a level with his betters. So he thought at the time, and so it grew in his memory as it disappeared in his life." The second essay follows the lead of Michael Kammen and Eric Hobsbawm by looking at the dichotomies of public vs. private and popular vs. official memory, and the external forces that shape these memories into "tradition." Young does an great job of illustrating his theory with experiences from Hewes's life, newspaper accounts, and contemporary prints. This book will interest both scholars and general readers, though Young does presume some prior knowledge of the Revolution on the part of the reader. A thought-provoking look at the nature of memory, history, and tradition. --Sunny Delaney
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This brief volume manages to be two books in one: the biography of a minor figure in the American Revolution and an essay on America's collective memory of the Revolutionary era. The shoemaker in question is George Robert Twelves Hewes, who participated in the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and other events of the rebellion. In 1835, the virtually forgotten Hewes was invited to Boston as one of the last surviving members of the Tea Party. Based on scattered archival materials, unusual printed works, and interviews with Hewes's descendants, this book offers a fascinating peek into the life of a poor man who got caught up in revolutionary fervor. Young, a senior research fellow at Chicago's Newbury Library and the author or editor of numerous books on the Revolutionary era, also presents an intriguing account of how events become "special" to a nation. The famous Tea Party, for example, was not so famous and was not even called a "tea party" until over a half-century after it occurred. Recommended for most public and academic libraries.AThomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
Young creates two essays; one that recalls George Robert Twelves Hewes participation in nearly every important event of the Am. Revolution, a sort of Forrest Gump of his time, and one that delves into the existance of historical memory- the true service of this book. Young relates the events of Hewes life through contemporary biographers who had on hand the last of the revolutionary warriors. Contemporaries, intent on justifying and embellishing the memory of the revolutionary fathers, left a clear track of what the people of 19th century America wanted to know and to believe about their forebearers. It matters little that it would have been extremely unlikely that Hewes was present at every event he recalled. That is Young's point. Sometimes, the story tells us as much about the historian and the market for his writing as it does about the event being recorded. Historical interpretation is recollection of events and placing them in context. Even immediately after an event, the eyewitness accounts vary. Today's historian may fall prey to superimposing current attitudes and values on prior events as those these are determinants. Young's Shoemaker is a valuable caution to interpreters of history.
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The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution
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