The Hidden History of the Boston Tea Party

By: Adam Jortner, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Adam Jortner

The history of the Boston Tea Party is a hidden one. Why? Since it was a clandestine operation, all sorts of rumors and legends grew up around the event—many collected decades after the American Revolution had ended.

At its core, however, the night of December 16, 1773, when colonials dumped tea from British ships into Boston Harbor, was more than a fight over tea and taxes. It was a struggle over the very nature of democracy and self-governance. Where does legal authority actually come from? Who gets to decide which laws are valid? What role does nonviolent (or violent) protest play in bringing about change?

For that matter, how does one even throw a 400-pound chest of tea overboard?

These and other questions are answered in The Hidden History of the Boston Tea Party, an Audible Original by noted author and historian Adam Jortner. In six engaging lectures, he unravels the secrets of that fateful night and reveals surprising truths about everything from the role tea played in colonial America to the everyday lives of American colonists in Boston to the challenges the Boston Tea Party presents for Americans in the 21st century. This nuanced historical analysis takes you beyond broad strokes and caricatures to offer a complex perspective on a decisive moment when the American colonists stood firm on the principle that there cannot be liberty without self-government.

©2023 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2023 Audible Originals, LLC.

Party took years to organize

Nothing. Entertaining and fun. Could have been a little longer but didn't drag on and on.

Got a real feel for the culture at the time

Breaking down the massachusett colonists by drinking club, loyalties, financial interests, and learning how their political sympathies evolved gave life to this historical event.

Informative

Jortner gives a brief, but well fleshed out, analysis of the tea party, and it’s antecedence. This is stuff that most of us don’t get in our seventh grade American history class.

It’s not his best here on Audible, but it’s well worth a listen.

This is a series of chapters that follow one another

The story line was put out in such a way that it made you want to continue listening to the book until the end.
Each chapter was well-researched and followed the course of history from the beginning of the thoughts of revolution after the French & indian war until the Boston tea party and the incidents following the tea party. True results of the boston tea party were shown including the fact that slavery was a issue even during this time. I Fact checked a lot of the statements he made and he is a excellent, well informed writer. This is not a story about the revolutionary war, but it is a story of the facts that led up to it. And a overview of the results.

Very good

Really enjoyed the narrator. Engaging and interesting history I didn’t know. The stuff on the east India company was fascinating.