America on trial : inside the legal battles that transformed our nation / Alan M. Dershowitz.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction ; Prologue: the foundations of American law -- Pt. I. Colonial America. The Salem witchcraft trials ; The trial of John Peter Zenger ; The slave revolt trial ; The Boston Massacre trials -- Pt. II. Early history of the US. The trials of aliens and seditioners ; The treason trial of Aaron Burr -- Pt. III. From Jacksonian democracy to the pre-Civil War period. The Boorn-Colvin murder mystery ; The Richard Lawrence case ; The Harvard Medical School murder -- Pt. IV. The prelude to the Civil War. The Dred Scott case ; The John Brown trial -- Pt. V. The Civil War. The Savannah case ; The trial of Captain Henry Wirz ; The trial of the Lincoln assassins -- Pt. VI. The post-Civil War period. The trial of Andrew Johnson ; The trial of Susan B. Anthony ; The trial of Mary Todd Lincoln ; The trial of the assassin Guiteau ; The trial of Lizzie Borden -- Pt. VII. Early 20th century. The trial of Stanford White's killer ; The great labor union trials ; The trial of Leo Frank ; The Abrams case ; The Shoeless Joe Jackson case -- Pt. VIII. The Roaring 20's" and the Depression 30's. The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti ; The trial of Leopold and Loeb ; The Scopes trial ; The court-martial of Billy Mitchell ; The Lindbergh kidnapping trial ; The Scottsboro trials -- Pt. IX. World War II. The Nuremberg trials ; The Ezra Pound case -- Pt. X. The Cold War and McCarthyism. The Alger Hiss case ; The trial of the Rosenbergs ; The Remington case -- Pt. XI. The civil rights movement. Brown [v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas] case ; The prosecution of Martin Luther King Jr. ; The case of Clarence Earl Gideon ; The trial of Jack Ruby -- Pt. XII. The Vietnam War era and its aftermath. The trial of Dr. Spock ; The trial of the Chicago Seven ; The court-martial of Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. ; The Pentagon papers case ; Roe v. Wade ; The American Indian movement trials; The Bakke case ; The trial of Richard Herrin ; The trial of Jeffrey MacDonald -- Pt. XIII. 1980's and 1990's. The trial of Jean Harris for the Scarsdale diet doctor murder ; The attempted assassination of President Reagan by John Hinkley Jr. ; The trials and appeal of Claus von Bulow ; The John DeLorean trial ; Flynt v. Falwell ; The Bernhard Goetz case ; The McMartin case ; The Central Park jogger case ; The trial of Mike Tyson ; The two trials for the beating of Rodney King ; The O.J. Simpson trial ; The Clinton impeachment trial -- Pt. XIV. The new millennium and the future. The Bush v. Gore ; The Texas sodomy trial and appeal ; The cases of the terrorist detainees--in Guantanamo, on the U.S. mainland, and in unknown places around the world.

The renowned attorney examines several of the most controversial and sensational court trials of the past thirty years, offering insight into how they have shaped present-day politics and society.