Current:Home > MarketsBook Review: ‘Kent State’ a chilling examination of 1970 campus shooting and its ramifications -Pinnacle Profit Strategies
Book Review: ‘Kent State’ a chilling examination of 1970 campus shooting and its ramifications
View
Date:2025-04-14 13:43:38
More than a half century has passed since Ohio National Guard members opened fire on college students during a war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and injuring nine others.
The description of the nation, then split over the Vietnam War, leading up to the 1970 tragedy echo today’s politics and divisions in many ways. In “Kent State: An American Tragedy,” historian Brian VanDeMark recounts a country that had split into two warring camps that would not and could not understand each other.
“It was a tense, suspicious, and combustible atmosphere that required only a spark to ignite a tragedy,” VanDeMark writes.
VanDeMark succeeds at helping readers understand that atmosphere, creating a chilling narrative of the spark and ensuing tragedy at Kent State. Within less than 13 seconds, 30 guardsmen fired 67 shots at protesters in an event where “the Vietnam War came home and the Sixties came to an end,” he writes.
With a straightforward writing style, VanDeMark provides both a micro and macro look at the events leading up to the massacre — examining the growing dissent against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and how it rippled across Kent State’s campus.
VanDeMark relies on a host of new material, including interviews with some of the guardsmen, to reconstruct the protests on campus and the shooting. He also recounts the investigations and legal fights that ensued following the shooting.
“Kent State” portrays a campus that grappled for years with its legacy, with no official memorial to the slain students erected on campus until two decades later, in 1990. A new visitors center devoted to the shooting that opened in 2012 suggested an emerging consensus about the tragedy, writes VanDeMark, whose work may contribute to that consensus as well.
___
AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews
veryGood! (75)
Related
- Mets have visions of grandeur, and a dynasty, with Juan Soto as major catalyst
- BeatKing, Houston native and 'Thick' rapper, dies at 39 from pulmonary embolism
- BeatKing, Houston native and 'Thick' rapper, dies at 39 from pulmonary embolism
- Taylor Swift drops 'Tortured Poets' song with new title seemingly aimed at Kanye West
- Sam Taylor
- Rail bridge collapses on US-Canada border
- 'Ketamine Queen,' doctors, director: A look at the 5 charged in Matthew Perry's death
- Former Alabama police officer agrees to plead guilty in alleged drug planting scheme
- FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
- Jordanian citizen charged for attacking Florida energy plant, threats condemning Israel
Ranking
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- Asteroids safely fly by Earth all the time. Here’s why scientists are watching Apophis.
- Michigan woman died after hiking Isle Royale National Park, officials say
- Horoscopes Today, August 16, 2024
- Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
- Ohio State coach Ryan Day names Will Howard as the team's starting quarterback
- Number of potentially lethal meth candies unknowingly shared by New Zealand food bank reaches 65
- IOC gives Romania go-ahead to award gymnast Ana Barbosu bronze medal after CAS ruling
Recommendation
Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
After record-breaking years, migrant crossings plunge at US-Mexico border
Don't Miss Out on lululemon's Rarest Finds: $69 Align Leggings (With All Sizes in Stock), $29 Tops & More
Watch mom freeze in shock when airman son surprises her after two years apart
Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
Ed Sheeran joins Taylor Swift onstage in Wembley for epic triple mashup
Why Jana Duggar Says It Was “Disheartening” Watching Her Siblings Getting Married First
15-year-old who created soap that could treat skin cancer named Time's 2024 Kid of the Year