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67 Shots

Kent State and the End of American Innocence

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
At midday on May 4, 1970, after three days of protests, several thousand students and the Ohio National Guard faced off at opposite ends of the grassy campus Commons at Kent State University. At noon, the Guard moved out. Twenty-four minutes later, Guardsmen launched a 13-second, 67-shot barrage that left four students dead and nine wounded, one paralyzed for life. The story doesn't end there, though. A horror of far greater proportions was narrowly averted minutes later when the Guard and students reassembled on the Commons.
The Kent State shootings were both unavoidable and preventable: unavoidable in that all the discordant forces of a turbulent decade flowed together on May 4, 1970, on one Ohio campus; preventable in that every party to the tragedy made the wrong choices at the wrong time in the wrong place.
Using the university's recently available oral-history collection supplemented by extensive new interviewing, Means tells the story of this iconic American moment through the eyes and memories of those who were there, and skillfully situates it in the context of a tumultuous era.
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    • Library Journal

      April 15, 2016

      On May 4, 1970, the growing tension between the antiwar movement and the "establishment" came to a head when members of the National Guard fired on students at Ohio's Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine. Means (Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story) places the event in national and local historical context by examining the escalation in Vietnam and the antiwar campaign as well as the history of the university and the town of Kent. The result is an intimate look at a tragedy that could not be predicted but was perhaps inevitable and signaled an end of innocence, as the title suggests. Making use of interviews and archival research, Means reveals the event as one that could have been prevented, but through failures of leadership on both sides, seemed destined to erupt in violence. The volume concludes by investigating the question of blame, one which the author argues may never be adequately resolved. VERDICT Although Means raises more inquiries than answers, he presents a solid account of a watershed moment in history. The inclusion of the remembrances of those involved that day (guardsmen, politicians, students, and victims) lends a personal voice to our understanding of the shootings and the aftermath.--Michael C. Miller, Austin P.L. & Austin History Ctr., TX

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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