America on Trial Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation

Great trials not only make great headlines, but also hold the keys to the passions and struggles of their times. In this fascinating and provocative work, Alan M. Dershowitz offers startling views of many of the most significant (and still controversial) cases in America's history-contrasting the Salem witch trials with the communist-hunting trials of the McCarthy era, the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and civil Rights cases from the Dred Scott decision to Brown v. Board of Education. Dershowitz also re-examines some of the high-profile cases in which he himself participated, including the Pentagon Papers case, the trials of the Chicago Seven, Claus von Bulow, O.J. Simpson, Mike Myson, and the political minefield of Bush v. Gore.

Alan M. Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University, is a litigator, columnist, lecturer, and book reviewer