The Critical Response

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Bill Keller):  “Kluger’s last venture into the history of American journalism was The Paper, his 1986 monumental autopsy of the New York Herald Tribune, and he brings the same gifts…to this book: vivid storytelling, built on exacting research, a knack for animating the context, and an exquisite sense of balance that honors this country’s essential press freedom without romanticizing its champions.”

 

LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS (Amy Brody): “Kluger tells the complex and thoroughly engaging history leading up to…Zenger’s trial for seditious libel of a government figure…. Zenger’s trial does not unfold until the final chapter.  But Kluger writes with such vivid detail and brisk pacing that the rather tortuous history that leads there is packed with drama….  Fascinating, too, is Kluger’s analysis of the rhetorical strategies employed…by the Journal….In the age of internet publishing, printed news has reduced resources, and original investigative journalism increasingly shares digital space with speculative ‘hot takes.’ Kluger’s illuminating history makes clear the far more restrictive circumstances of the press in the 18th century, and it stands as a cautionary tale of what might happen if we let history repeat itself.”

 

THE WASHINGTON TIMES (James Srodes): “This story is all the more important because it is less about Zenger the man than it is about how efforts by governments to keep the people quiet when they protest official misconduct must be resisted at all costs.…  What is so timely about this well-written and thoroughly researched book is its reminder that no civil right extended to the American people is set in stone or inviolable….  President Obama as well as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump should read this book but probably will not.  But you ought to, if only to stiffen your sinews.”

 

LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review by Margaret Kappanadze): “Kluger deftly details the years of repressive political and legal conditions leading to Zenger’s 1735 trial [and] thoroughly outlines the history of [Governor] Cosby’s peremptory abuses of royal perogative….  Kluger raises important questions still resonating today: Should the government limit free expression to maintain order and shield itself from criticism (warranted or not)?....  This thought-provoking account deserves to be read by everyone.”

 

BOOKLIST: (starred review by Bryce Christensen):  “Kluger recognizes a need to assess such exposés (like the Pentagon Papers, Wikileaks, and Edward Snowden’s) in a much broader historical context….  Event by compelling event, readers follow Zenger through the drama that eventually landed him in jail on libel charges – before a liberty-loving jury freed him in a 1735 verdict signaling a clear American commitment to the unfettered reporting that can check abuse of power.  [This book is] a much-needed prologue to today’s headlines.”

 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (Mark G. Spencer):  “Mr. Kluger develops his account in layers without revealing his conclusions too soon….  One of Kluger’s conclusions is that the birth of an American free press had as much to do with factional politics and economic interests as ideology.  Another conclusion is that Zenger’s affair sowed the seeds of the rising call for independence from Britain a generation hence.”

 

AMERICAN JOURNALISM, a Media History Journal (David Copeland):  “Meticulously written…this book is the most extensive source yet on the Zenger case.  Once Kluger begins offering the intricacies of the 1730s political situation, Indelible Ink is a captivating read…. As a means of understanding colonial politics and the budding power of the press, it is an outstanding book.”

 

PHILADELPHIA LAWYER (Kelly Tillery): “Richard Kluger won the Pulitzer Prize for his masterful exposé of the cigarette industry…and his study of school desegregation, Simple Justice, is a classic.  His latest [is] equally excellent if less controversial…. Indelible Ink is the most thoughtful, comprehensive, and well-researched study of the 1735 criminal trial in New York City of newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger.”