The Trial of Peter Zenger

In colonial New York a modest printer named Peter Zenger found himself at the heart of a fierce political battle. He produced a weekly journal that gave voice to the Popular Party, publishing essays, poetry and, most controversially, sharply worded attacks on Governor William Cosby’s arbitrary rule. Though Zenger himself never wrote the articles, the paper’s bold criticism made him the target of the colonial authorities.

When Cosby pressed charges of seditious libel, the case drew the brilliant lawyer Andrew Hamilton to Zenger’s defense and revealed the hidden hand of James Alexander, the journal’s true editor and strategist. Their courtroom tactics turned the trial into a landmark defense of the right to publish truth without fear of censorship. The book unfolds this dramatic legal struggle, showing how a single trial helped lay the foundations for press freedom in America.