Customer Reviews

John Hancock: A Signature Life (Book Report Biographies)

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This is a very good resource for John Hancock. It tells a complete story of his life. In the story John seems like a very interesting character. I suggest teachers use this for there students.

This slim book (100pgs of main text) serves as a nice introduction to the subject either for 'young adults' or, err... not-so-young adults.

The chapter titles are as follows:

1. "Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land"

2. The Making of a Merchant Prince

3. The House of Hancock

4. Boston on the Boil

5. The Revolution Begins

6. Fighting for Freedom

7. Victory

8. Forging a Nation

Koslow's approach is a pretty straightforward, chronological one -- always best for a biography, in my opinion. The book has good info on Hancock's family, education, and early career. But, not surprisingly, it concentrates on his participation in the early colonial protests in the mid-1760s thru early-1770s, his involvement in the First & Second Continental Congresses (including being the first to sign the Declaration of Independence), and through the American Revolution. It also discusses Hancock's governorship of Massachusetts, his part in getting the new U.S. Constitution ratified, and finally his death in 1793. Various areas of his personal life (e.g., marriage, kids, sickness, business problems) are interwoven throughout.

Koslow's writing style is quite fluid and readable for his intended audience. Only a couple of times did I notice him repeating something unnecessarily. I also only caught one or two typos, which is not bad, though they should have been caught by a copy-editor.

There are no endnotes, which I suppose is typical for such a short, youth-oriented book. There is a 'Chronology' of Hancock's life at the end of the book, as well as 'A Note on Sources' and a list 'For Further Reading', which should prove helpful for further research, and a brief index. There are several black-n-white reproductions of paintings, documents, etc., which I really appreciated, but they weren't too large or too many as to overwhelm the text. Nicely done.

Content: 4

Style & Structure: 4

Average: 4