A continuation of the author's memoir of growing up poor in Boston's Irish-American ghetto describes his first forays outside of Southie's Old Colony housing project, his traumatic breakdown, and his two healing journeys to Ireland.

Seeks to illuminate the founding father's lesser-known but pivotal roles in the American Revolution and the development of key national agendas, explaining how Adams represented the new country's moral conscience.

"During the brutal winter of 1775-1776, an untested Boston bookseller named Henry Knox commandeered an oxen train hauling sixty tons of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga near the Canadian border. He and his men journeyed some three hundred miles south and east over frozen, often-treacherous terrain to supply George Washington for his attack of British troops occupying Boston. The result was the British surrender of Boston and the first...