American Rebels

A "hugely enjoyable" chronicle of the Adams, Quincy and Hancock families and how they helped spark the American Revolution (Christian Science Monitor).

Awarded the 2021 New 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. Author Nina Sankovitch examines the intertwined lives of John Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Quincy Jr, Abigail Smith Adams, and Dorothy Quincy Hancock, and argues for the distinct roles each played in fomenting revolution. Their trajectory from loyal British subjects to American rebels was forged in childhood; and their deeply held convictions, founded in community, fueled their collaborations during the fraught and violent years leading up to 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.

Praise for American Rebels

"American Rebels reminds us that as momentous events unfolded, the stuff of daily life carried on—courtships, marriages, family gatherings; houses were constructed, careers furthered, gout and consumption endured by some." —Wall Street Journal

"Sankovitch has woven a compelling, potent chronicle of members of three principal American families that will be valued by readers of American history at all levels." —Library Journal (starred review)


"Historian Sankovitch . . . explores the family connections and revolutionary politics shared by John Hancock, John and Abigail Adams, and Josiah Quincy Jr., in this richly detailed and fluidly written account. . . . Sankovitch leavens her deeply researched account with wit, and presents a persuasive and entertaining portrait of life in colonial Boston. Revolutionary War buffs will savor this thoughtful addition to popular histories of the period." —Publishers Weekly