Historian George Herring argues that Adams was the most independent-minded of all the founders.

Gusinsky has attracted some of the most independent-minded and talented journalists in Russia, people who say they are there because they believe in a free press and will fight for it.

However, critics note that when after the 1968 invasion most independent-minded professionals were purged from their professions and expelled from the party, Mr. Kamarek weathered the storm.

His death in a car crash, aged only 42, robbed the House of Commons of one of its most independent-minded and pragmatic members.

American Catholics are probably the best-educated, most independent-minded laity in the church's history.

"My concern is that the people who would be most independent-minded and most-informed are the ones intentionally locked out of the process," Mr. Pacicco said.

Feline teams, made up of members of the most independent-minded species on the planet, had to have close personal relationships and had to be absolutely convinced of each other's reliability.

"This is the most independent-minded group of curmudgeons assembled in any given place," Mr. Lindsey said.

Or, dreadful thought, must even today's most independent-minded adventurer film his adventure to prove that it really happened?

These, on the whole, were 'indigenous' rather than'imposed'regimes, and they tended to be the most independent-minded in their relations with the Soviet authorities.