John Adams Under Fire

The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial

By: Dan Abrams, David Fisher

Narrated by: Dan Abrams, Roger Wayne

*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.

Difficult to follow

Interesting part of unkown part of our American history by a well written
author...good. enjoyed

inspired me to learn more about Adams

the book was professionally done and performed. It was a bit didactic and and didn't really color the characters beyond their cerebral descriptions

Well done, Nothing Out of Order

A tight account of the testimony given at trial and has sparked even more curiosity. Now I must read ‘The Boston Massacre’.

Excellent Historical Book

On March 5, 1770, five citizens of the town of Boston were killed, apparently murdered by British troops. This book describes two trials in which John Adams defended first the captain and later eight individual soldiers. There were dozens if not hundreds of witnesses to what occurred that night, but their accounts differed widely, to say the least. Most interesting to me was the development of the law. While there was a jury of 12 men, there were also several judges that heard the case and, in charging the jury, gave their views of the evidence. The prohibition against self-incrimination kept the defendants from testifying, but hearsay was generally allowed. Few objections to testimony were raised. The lawyers quoted freely to the jury from legal texts. The developing precept of proof of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt was advanced by these proceedings. The narration was excellent; it kept the listener focused on the story. I would recommend this title to anyone interested in early American history.

perfection

I enjoyed mixing my love of history and my live if true crime! can’t wait to listen to the other books!