Word: fowler
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...William Fowler's The Baron of Beacon Hill enters the world of the "In" and "Out" of revolutionary Boston. His narrative biography examines the man behind the signature, interjecting vitality into a historical figure who dominated the American political scene for more than three decades...
Sitting in his office overlooking an expansive parking lot at Northeastern University, Fowler explains his interest in John Hancock. In the man who, for most, means life insurance. the skyscraper, or the hazy and not-too-interesting personage who endorsed the Constitution, Fowler sees a paradoxical politico. The dichotomous Hancock, generally acknowledged in his day as Boston's wealthiest citizen, became its most outspoken revolutionary. Fowler's examination demythifies...
...Fowler spent nearly three years niggling back through the records of Hancock's life to prepare this scholarly work. Hancock's official record at Harvard, stored in the basement of Houghton Library, shed some light on his character. Although he entered Harvard at the precocious age of 13, he was an undistinguished student. He complained about the "rotten" food and usually ate at local alehouses, where he picked up a taste for rum. Fowler includes in the text some of the drinking songs Hancock composed while at school...
Demoted several places in his class rank for disorderly drinking shortly after he moved into Massachusetts Hall, Hancock was among the rowdiest at the College. Fowler's theory that the "intellectual crosswinds" Hancock encountered at Harvard engendered his later liberalism is questionable. Those same crosswinds haven't deterred many others from the allure of financial security and conservatism...
...While Fowler's reasoning may leave some readers skeptical, his attention to Harvard's and Boston's past adds a dimension that should appeal to those interested in local history. He teaches a course on the city, and his bulletin board, covered with Red Sox bumper stickers and posters of Boston, reflects his love for the city. The Baron of Beacon Hill traces Boston's development from a network of cowpaths into a matrix of cobblestone streets leading to the suburbs just beginning to spring up. Fowler also describes a visit, not unlike one last fall, by John Carroll...