John Adams under fire : the founding father's fight for justice in the Boston Massacre murder trial /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Look for Dan Abrams and David Fisher's new book, Kennedy's Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby.



*NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*



"An expert, extremely detailed account of John Adams' finest hour."--Kirkus Reviews



Honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre



The New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln's Last Trial and host of LivePD Dan Abrams and David Fisher tell the story of a trial that would change history.



History remembers John Adams as a Founding Father and our country's second president. But in the tense years before the American Revolution, he was still just a lawyer, fighting for justice in one of the most explosive murder trials of the era.



On the night of March 5, 1770, shots were fired by British soldiers on the streets of Boston, killing five civilians. The Boston Massacre has often been called the first shots of the American Revolution. As John Adams would later remember, "On that night the formation of American independence was born." Yet when the British soldiers faced trial, the young lawyer Adams was determined that they receive a fair one. He volunteered to represent them, keeping the peace in a powder keg of a colony, and in the process created some of the foundations of what would become United States law.



In this book, New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher draw on the trial transcript, using Adams's own words to transport readers to colonial Boston, a city roiling with rebellion, where British military forces and American colonists lived side by side, waiting for the spark that would start a war.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

The first shots in the American Revolution occurred during the Boston Massacre, and this history describes the trial that followed, certainly "the most important case in American colonial history."On March 5, 1770, British soldiers, harassed by a mob throwing snowballs and rocks, fired into the crowd, killing five and injuring six. Abrams, the chief legal affairs correspondent for ABC News, and prolific author Fisher (co-authors: Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency, 2018) write that the 34-year-old Adams, a successful lawyer who was sympathetic to the protestors, agreed to defend the officer and eight soldiers accused of murder. He would later write, "Counsel ought to be the very last thing an accused person should want in a free country." This was a moderately courageous act that did his growing law practice no good. To his dying day, Adams grumbled that opponents used the trial to impugn his patriotism. This may have been true, but since then, historians have given him high marks. There were two trials. In the first, the defense had little trouble convincing the jury that Thomas Preston, the officer in charge, did not order his men to fire. In the second, Adams and colleagues strived to show that the soldiers feared for their lives, thus giving them the right to kill in self-defense. They largely succeeded. The jury exonerated six and convicted two of the lesser charge of manslaughter. The letter "m" was burned onto their thumbs as punishment. A transcript exists of the soldiers' trial, which is perhaps too much of a good thing, as the authors quote liberally from it. Despite variations, readers will encounter perhaps 100 pages of witnesses' descriptions of the same event followed by several lawyers' careful reviews of those that support the case. Many readers will feel the urge to skim these parts, but on the whole, the narrative is engaging. An expert, extremely detailed account of John Adams' finest hour. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Dan Abrams is an American author, entrepreneur, news anchor, born in New York City in 1966. He earned his law degree at Columbia Law School. He is the chief legal affairs anchor of ABC News. At A&E network, he is the host of Live PD. His first book was published in 2011, Man Down: Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt That Women Are Better Cops, Drivers, Gamblers, Spies, World Leaders, Beer Tasters, Hedge Fund Managers and Just About Everything Else (2011). His second book was published in June 2018, Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency.

(Bowker Author Biography)