"Samuel Adams" makes many Americans think about a certain kind of brewed beverage. But the Massachusetts statesman and political philosopher served his new country as one of its foremost leaders. A political essayist and anti-tax rebel, Samuel Adams served as a moving force behind the original Boston Tea Party, signed the Declaration of Independence, and represented Massachusetts as Delegate and Governor.

During an especially dismal season in the colonies' War for Independence, Adams - a committed Christian - addressed his colleagues in the Continental Congress with the following encouragement:

"If we despond, public confidence is destroyed, the people will no longer yield their support to a hopeless contest, and American liberty is no more... Let us awaken then, and evince a different spirit... We have been reduced to distress, and the arm of Omnipotence has raised us up. Let us still rely in humble confidence on Him who is mighty to save."

Join us at noon on Wednesday, February 29th as esteemed Adams biographer Ira Stoll offers us a closer look at the passionate patriot, and shows us why his passion and faith are relevant to today's policy battles.

Ira Stoll is the author of Samuel Adams: A Life (Free Press, 2008) and the founder and editor of The Future of Capitalism, a Web site created to help readers understand the economic world around them. Stoll was vice president and managing editor of the New York Sun, which he helped to found, from its debut in 2002 until its demise in 2008. Before that he was a consultant to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, North American editor of the Jerusalem Post, editor of Smartertimes.com, Washington correspondent and then managing editor of the Forward, and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He is a graduate of Harvard, where he was president of the Harvard Crimson. He lives in New York City.