New York’s preeminent printer, William Bradford, knew how to keep his nose clean, and steer clear of the building controversy over corrupt and mean-spirited Royal Governor William H. Cosby. His former apprentice, John Peter Zenger, had little such self-preservation instincts when he opened a competing shop. As anti-Cosby sentiment produced polemics from aggrieved businessmen and were printed by Zenger, a vigorous conversation between the two factions swayed public opinion toward the German immigrant.
There were libel cases involving newspaper publishers since Zenger, and Zenger’s defense — that it can’t be libelous if it’s true — had a mixed success rate in the years after the case. But it gained just enough notoriety to cause freedom of the press to be included in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Kluger’s narrative begins by laying out the whole political topography of early 18th Century New York.
