Indelible Ink
The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America’s Free Press

For me, the book took a while to get going, because I was hearing about Lewis Morris, William Cosby, and James Alexander for the first half of the book much more than Peter Zenger, without understanding what roles they played until Zenger was becoming the pawn in the middle of a fight between a prov......more

This book, presumably, is about the 1734 trial of John Peter Zenger, a printer accused of libel for publishing a newspaper highly critical of the appointed governor of New York. However, more than half the book has almost nothing to do with Zenger or the trial, focusing instead on the life and polit......more

Indelible Ink is about the 18th century court case that is widely viewed as establishing freedom of the press as a foundation of American law. In that 1735 trial, the New York printer John Peter Zenger is charged with seditious libel for printing in his New York Weekly Journal information and commen......more

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reading Copy from the publisher via Goodreads' Giveaways in exchange for this review. As both a history teacher and advocate for free speech, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Using primary sources and critical analysis of secondary sources, Kluger's fills his narrati......more

this is a very well done book about freedom of the press in Colonial America. Focused on trial of John Peter Zenger and the challenges. Much to think about in our current political discourse.......more