Title: Ten Tea Parties: Patriotic Protests That History Forgot
Author: Joseph Cummins
Review: I found this book full of historical facts, I didn’t realize that more than one Tea Party had taken place before the Revolutionary war, but they seemed to be having them up and down the Eastern Seaboard at that time.
The book talked about the players and how they came to tossing tea chests into the harbors and how they also burned it. The chapter on women and tea really kept my interest. They also got in on the tea parties and refused to drink the ‘vile concoction’ until the tax was removed. This was a huge ‘hot button’ topic for the colonists and it kept the Sons of Liberty busy. It seems funny to think that a little thing like tea drove the colonists to action and united them in a common cause later bringing on the revolution. There are many quotes out there about the consequences of small actions. Well these Tea Parties had quite the consequence for the English and the colonists.
I enjoyed the book, but it had its dry moments. Pure history for history sake can be boring at times. I would have liked the author to taken some creative license and given us a few fictional actions and characters to hold on to. Giving history a face and life can make the whole thing pop giving readers a feeling of having been there.
If you enjoy historical facts and dates, you will enjoy this little book on the big topic of Tea Parties.
Publisher: January 17th 2012 by Quirk Books
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781594745607
Quick Review: 4 Stars out of 5. Not 5 because I wanted more.
Why Did I read this Book: I won this on Goodreads first –reads. Sent by the publisher.
Synopsis: Every kid knows the story of 1773’s Boston Tea Party, in which colonists ambushed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But do you know the story of the New Jersey Tea Party (December 1773)? How about the Annapolis Tea Party (October 1774) or the Charleston Tea Party (November 1774)?
Revolutionary America was full of these spirited protests—and Ten Tea Parties is the first book to chronicle all of them. Author and historian Joseph Cummins begins with the history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation of the 18th century) and its staggering financial losses during the Boston Tea Party (more than $1 million worth of tea in today’s money). From there we travel to Philadelphia, where 8,000 colonists gathered on Christmas Day threatening to tar and feather the captain of a ship. Then we set sail for New York City, North Carolina, Maine, and other unexpected destinations. This gifty volume of popular history concludes with a discussion of how Americans have returned again and again to the tea party as a symbol of political protest.
Author Biography: Joseph Cummins is an author and historian. His other books include Anything for a Vote and History’s Great Untold Stories. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.
I should read this. Patriotic protests were a major theme in the crime novel I wrote with my husband.
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