Infamous Scribblers is a perceptive and witty exploration of the most raucous period in the history of the American press. Alexander Hamilton and Sam Adams were the leading journalists among the founding fathers. George Washington and John Adams were the leading disdainers of journalists; and Thomas Jefferson was the leading manipulator of journalists. The journalism of the era was often partisan, fabricated, overheated, scandalous, sensationalistic and sometimes stirring, brilliant and indispensable. Despite its flaws - even because of some of them - the participants hashed out publicly first the issues that would lead America to declare its independence and, after the war, to determine what sort of nation it would be.