美国国家公共电台 NPR--Stacy Schiff takes on a hero of the American Revolution in her new book

Stacy Schiff takes on a hero of the American Revolution in her new book

Transcript¹

Steve Inskeep speaks to Stacy Schiff about her biography of Samuel Adams.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Years ago, a friend told me I had to read a book. It was a biography of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt in ancient Roman times. Stacy Schiff wrote that book, even though the record contained few reliable facts about Cleopatra's life and even gave conflicting versions of her death.

STACY SCHIFF: And so instead of trying to get out in front of it or trying to even make the two accounts tally² in some way, I had her die twice - once by one account, once by the other account - trying to communicate to the reader that, in fact, both of these accounts are very likely, at least in part, fictitious³.

INSKEEP: We debate history with such certainty, as if we have the answers when, in truth, it's more of a detective story. Schiff has been drawn⁴ more than once to people whose stories are partly hidden.

SCHIFF: I think there's a romance there of some kind. Why did these people go missing? How did they go missing? Who was covering up what and why?

INSKEEP: Her latest book seeks out a hero of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams of Boston. He's famous. You see his picture on Sam Adams beer. But unlike other revolutionaries, say his second cousin, John Adams, it is hard to say just what Samuel Adams did. He was apparently⁵ a writer, a propagandist, dramatizing resistance to the British crown in the 1700s. Maybe he had something to do with the Boston Tea Party, where revolutionaries threw British tea in the Boston Harbor. He was a downscale guy from a formerly⁶ wealthy family who organized people behind the scenes.

SCHIFF: He somewhat writes himself out of the history. He's very much aware - in a way that Benjamin Franklin wished he were - of not too much claiming the limelight. And he's much more comfortable pushing other people into the spotlight⁷, which is part of his nature. It's very much part of where he comes from. But he also was trying to cover the trail because fomenting⁸ revolution is never something you mean to advertise, at least before the revolution. We have a sort of heart-rending account of John Adams' in which Samuel Adams is feeding papers to the fire - to his fire in his room in Philadelphia. And John says to Samuel, don't you think you're maybe overreacting a little bit here? And Samuel replies that he doesn't want any of their friends to suffer for his negligence⁹. So there's a real attempt to sort of cover the trail.

INSKEEP: He believed he would be more effective if he were less noticed. Is that it?

SCHIFF: I think it was very useful to him. People wrote under pseudonyms¹⁰ for the most part in those days. And he's writing under something like 30, or at least 30 that we have counted, which makes him seem more effective because, of course, there's this entire legion of people. There's this whole community of people writing, all of them who happen to be Samuel Adams.

INSKEEP: Because you don't have a lot of his own words that are confirmed to be his own words, you seem to go to extraordinary lengths to illuminate¹¹ the world around him - for example, Samuel Adams, Boston, Mass., in the 1700s. Can you tell me about one thing that you did to bring that time and that place to light? You seem to have gone through all the master's theses written by Harvard University students in the 1700s. What did you find?

SCHIFF: I just thought that was an interesting way to get a sense of the pulse of Boston. So Harvard graduates who were essentially¹² sitting for their masters were able to pick a thesis that they intended to argue, either for or against. And the questions that they choose seem to provide something of an X-ray of what was going on in the minds of people at the time. Can slavery be in any way justified¹³? Do the ends justify¹⁴ the means? And then there were kind of what seemed to us insane questions, you know, about the existence of angels or the religious questions which we would no longer consider today. And the question which Adams chooses is whether the loyalty¹⁵ to the crown should be sustained if a people's rights have been invaded.

INSKEEP: This is decades before the American Revolution. What was it that put this on his mind?

SCHIFF: One of the things that drew me to the book - because there is this long launch time, which I think we forget. I think we tend to think of the revolution as having been this kind of steady march to revolution. And I wanted to inject in it that accidental quality. It happens in fits and start, and sometimes, it sputters¹⁶ out completely. What had happened in the early 1740s is that a land bank, which was founded by a group of Massachusetts men, had been very peremptorily¹⁷ shut down by the crown in London. And Samuel Adams' father had been one of the directors of that bank, had invested a great deal in it. In the abolishing of the bank, he was effectively ruined financially. And Samuel Adams, our Samuel Adams, would spend much of the next years, in fact, fending¹⁸ off creditors¹⁹ because he would be responsible after his father's death for the debt incurred²⁰ by the land bank and attempting to make sure that his house was not repossessed. So from a very early point, there is this sense that his rights have somehow been violated or that the crown has somehow overreached.

INSKEEP: Did that drive him, then, for all the years that followed?

SCHIFF: This is where the evidence fails us. I think you can draw a perforated line between those two things. I don't think I would ever want to say that that is why he is so much sensitive to liberties invaded over the years that follow. It is certainly what propels him. By all accounts, it is what propels him to centre stage politically.

INSKEEP: You note that his fellow revolutionaries gave headlines of this guy, said that he was great and important but then didn't say why. Do you think that you figured out what it was that he did that made him important?

SCHIFF: I think that if there is a driving force over the years between, say, the Stamp Act and the declaration, Samuel Adams is behind it. And I think that if you return him to those years, the revolution looks very different. And if you want to see how street protests will build into this much larger movement, if you want to understand what the man in the street was thinking, Samuel Adams will illuminate all of those things for you. He struck me in many ways as a man from another time in his austerity and in his integrity. And these are - many of the qualities that he demonstrates, I think, are qualities that have to us today become qualities which are more military than civilian²¹. But that sense of promoting other people's careers, being the person in the background, shepherding other people to center stage, very much the way he operated and partly what made him so effective. He's an extraordinary recruiter of men - one of his contemporaries would say that, for that reason alone, he should go down in history - but also remarkably²² good at changing men's minds. I mean, these were the years - John Adams will say that these are the - this was the real revolution. The revolution that precedes the actual fighting, this is the revolution in thinking. And in changing those hearts and minds, Adams is really at the forefront.

INSKEEP: The latest book by Stacy Schiff is "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams." Thanks so much.

SCHIFF: Thanks so much, Steve.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

3 fictitious   

adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的

参考例句：

• She invented a fictitious boyfriend to put him off.她虚构出一个男朋友来拒绝他。
• The story my mother told me when I was young is fictitious.小时候妈妈对我讲的那个故事是虚构的。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

7 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

8 fomenting   

v.激起，煽动（麻烦等）( foment的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They accused him of fomenting political unrest. 他们指控他煽动政治动乱。
• Three sailors were fomenting a mutiny on the ship. 三个水手正在船上煽动叛变。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 negligence   

n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意

参考例句：

• They charged him with negligence of duty.他们指责他玩忽职守。
• The traffic accident was allegedly due to negligence.这次车祸据说是由于疏忽造成的。

10 pseudonyms   

n.假名，化名，（尤指）笔名( pseudonym的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• But on newspaper websites, pseudonyms are allowed and are widely used. 但在报纸的网站上，读者可用假名评论且普遍会这么做。 来自互联网
• All materials should bear the writer's name, address and phone number andbe published under pseudonyms. 文章可用笔名发表，惟投稿者须附真实姓名、地址及联络电话。 来自互联网

11 illuminate   

vt.照亮，照明；用灯光装饰；说明，阐释

参考例句：

• Dreams kindle a flame to illuminate our dark roads.梦想点燃火炬照亮我们黑暗的道路。
• They use games and drawings to illuminate their subject.他们用游戏和图画来阐明他们的主题。

12 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

13 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

14 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

15 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

16 sputters   

n.喷溅声( sputter的名词复数 )；劈啪声；急语；咕哝v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的第三人称单数 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出

参考例句：

• Fat sputters in the frying pan. 肥油在炸锅里劈啪劈啪地响。 来自辞典例句
• Worst cases can lead to recession or the dreaded'stagflation", when inflation soars and growth sputters. 当时最严重的情况是在通货膨胀物价剧增时导致经济萧条或可怕的滞涨现象。 来自互联网

17 peremptorily   

adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地

参考例句：

• She peremptorily rejected the request. 她断然拒绝了请求。
• Their propaganda was peremptorily switched to an anti-Western line. 他们的宣传断然地转而持反对西方的路线。 来自辞典例句

18 fending   

v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的现在分词 )；挡开，避开

参考例句：

• He is always spending his time fending with the neighbors. 他总是与邻里们吵架。 来自互联网
• Fifth, it is to build safeguarding system and enhance the competence in fending off the risk. 五是建立政策保障体系，提高防范和抵御风险的能力。 来自互联网

19 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 incurred   

[医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式

参考例句：

• She had incurred the wrath of her father by marrying without his consent 她未经父亲同意就结婚，使父亲震怒。
• We will reimburse any expenses incurred. 我们将付还所有相关费用。

21 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

22 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。