Summer Reading at the Alice: The Shoemaker and the Tea Party

This August we continue 2026's Summer Reading at the Alice series, which will focus primarily on revolutionary-era stories and subjects to help us celebrate America 250, with Alfred F. Young's The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution. Come, chat, snack, and share this great read with us! A few copies will be available at the Alice for loan.

About the book: George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who participated in such key events of the American Revolution as the Boston Massacre and the Tea Party, might have been lost to history if not for his longevity and the historical mood of the 1830's. When the Tea Party became a leading symbol of the Revolutionary era fifty years after the actual event, this 'common man' in his nineties was 'discovered' and celebrated in Boston as a national hero. Young pieces together this extraordinary tale, adding new insights…