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Indelible Ink

The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America's Free Press

Richard Kluger

$45.95

Hardback

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English
Norton
14 October 2016
The liberty of expression has been fixed in the firmament of our social values since our nation's beginning—the United States was the first government to legalize free speech and a free press as fundamental rights. But when the British began colonizing the New World, any words, true or false, thought to disparage the government were judged as criminally subversive.

So when in 1733 a small newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal, printed scathing articles assailing the new British governor, William Cosby, as corrupt and abusive, colonial New York was scandalized. The paper's publisher, John Peter Zenger—only a front man for Cosby's adversaries, New York Supreme Court Chief Justice Lewis Morris and the shrewd attorney James Alexander—became the endeavor's courageous fall guy when Cosby brought the full force of his high office down upon it. Zenger faced a jury on August 4, 1735, in a proceeding matched in importance during the colonial period only by the Salem Witch Trials.

In Indelible Ink, acclaimed social historian Richard Kluger re-creates in rich detail this dramatic clash of powerful antagonists that marked the beginning of press freedom in America. Here is an enduring lesson that resounds to this day on the vital importance of free public expression as the underpinning of democracy. 8 pages of illustrations

By:  
Imprint:   Norton
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 244mm,  Width: 170mm,  Spine: 30mm
Weight:   709g
ISBN:   9780393245462
ISBN 10:   0393245462
Pages:   368
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Richard Kluger won the Pulitzer Prize for Ashes to Ashes, a searing history of the cigarette industry, and was a two-time National Book Award finalist (for Simple Justice and The Paper). He lives near San Francisco.

Reviews for Indelible Ink: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America's Free Press

Kluger raises important questions still resonating today...This thought-provoking account deserves to be read by everyone. -- Starred Review - Library Journal Beneath WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden, beneath the whole modern concept of a free press, lies the trial of a German-American printer in colonial New York. Richard Kluger's account of the Zenger trial is thoughtful, scrupulously detailed, and utterly relevant. -- Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World Indelible Ink is a triumph...a new and very compelling take on the Zenger case. I found myself glued to Kluger's book and much in agreement with his findings, and he has written it all wonderfully well. -- Stanley N. Katz, author of Newcastle's New York: Anglo-American Politics, 1723-53 and director of Princeton University's Center for Art and Cultural Studies


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