Stacy Schiff
The Revolutionary
The book follows Samuel Adams from Boston’s local politics into the Revolution, asking how a wary organizer turned disputes over taxation, representation, and military power into collective resistance. It traces the costs of his methods and the uncertain record that shaped his reputation, showing how political change and public memory intertwined.
10 chapters
The Witches: Salem, 1692
Stacy Schiff reconstructs the 1692 Salem witch trials, asking how affliction and rumor became a legal conspiracy, and why officials accepted evidence that could not be reliably tested. The account follows the community’s religious and political strains, the court’s choices, the human costs, and later efforts to explain and remember the crisis.
11 chapters