Kent State
An American Tragedy
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- £14.99
Publisher Description
Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
A Kirkus Reviews and New Yorker Best Book of 2024
An ALA Notable Book
A definitive history of the fatal clash between Vietnam War protestors and the National Guard, illuminating its causes and lasting consequences.
On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, political fires that had been burning across America during the 1960s exploded. Antiwar protesters wearing bell-bottom jeans and long hair hurled taunts and rocks at another group of young Americans—National Guardsmen sporting gas masks and rifles. At half past noon, violence unfolded with chaotic speed, as guardsmen—many of whom had joined the Guard to escape the draft—opened fire on the students. Two reductive narratives ensued: one, that lethal state violence targeted Americans who spoke their minds; the other, that law enforcement gave troublemakers the comeuppance they deserved. For over fifty years, little middle ground has been found due to incomplete and sometimes contradictory evidence.
Kent State meticulously re-creates the divided cultural landscape of America during the Vietnam War and heightened popular anxieties around the country. On college campuses, teach-ins, sit-down strikes, and demonstrations exposed the growing rift between the left and the right. Many students opposed the war as unnecessary and unjust and were uneasy over poor and working-class kids drafted and sent to Vietnam in their place. Some developed a hatred for the military, the police, and everything associated with authority, while others resolved to uphold law and order at any cost.
Focusing on the thirteen victims of the Kent State shooting and a painstaking reconstruction of the days surrounding it, historian Brian VanDeMark draws on crucial new research and interviews—including, for the first time, the perspective of guardsmen who were there. The result is a complete reckoning with the tragedy that marked the end of the sixties.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This powerful work by historian Brian VanDeMark reveals new details about the 1970 tragedy at Kent State University, when National Guardsmen infamously killed four student protestors. VanDeMark interviewed people who were there on all sides, creating an immersive, almost minute-by-minute depiction of a long weekend that veered between tension and peace. (The day before the shootings, Guardsmen and students were hanging out on campus playing cards and touch football.) Crucially, VanDeMark also puts the event into historical context, tracing how anti-Vietnam sentiment gave rise to nihilistic groups like the Weathermen and why Kent State, a little-known school in a small Ohio town, had become a hotbed of anti-war sentiment. He also documents the fallout, from lengthy trials to the personal stories of those who were there, including the National Guard member who gave the order to fire. Evenhanded and thoughtful, Kent State puts an American tragedy into a new context.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian VanDeMark (Road to Disaster) elicits a startling "belated confession" from former platoon sergeant Matt McManus in this fine-grained examination of the Kent State massacre. On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on student antiwar demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The slayings triggered national outrage and decades of scrutiny over why the troops fired. VanDeMark's account hinges on interviews with McManus, who claims he shouted an order to "fire in the air" that was misheard as an order to fire on the demonstrators. (He previously admitted giving such an order only after the shooting started.) In addition to showing how this possibility fits with witness testimony, VanDeMark also uses McManus's account and his own exhaustive research into the shooting's aftermath to paint both the guardsmen and the students as victims of a malfunctioning system. It's a somewhat forced bit of bothsidesing that gives an uncomfortable pass to McManus for his years of evasiveness ("People don't withhold the truth unless the whole truth is too much to bear," VanDeMark asserts, a forgiving truism contradicted by McManus's own tacit acknowledgment that he lied to avoid consequences). But VanDeMark's thorough documentation of events is worthwhile, especially for its urgent warnings ("This could happen again easily, if students decide government put up for sale to the highest bidder," one survivor says). It's a significant discovery about an enduring mystery.
