67 Shots

Kent State and the End of American Innocence

By: Howard Means

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

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.

©2016 Howard Means (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ohio

This book broke my heart all over again. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, wasn’t it?

Thorough, thoughtful, in-depth examination of Kent state

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Not only does it provide an in-depth look at the tragedy at Kent State, it does so in the context of the times in which it occurred. It is well researched and the ending provides a very good analysis of the event as well as The many repercussions.

Great Book & Narrator

I love the way the narrator says "horror". Also, the intimate breakdown of this terrible period of history was great.

A trove of surprisingly fresh information.

For those around the country who lived through the Kent State tragedy, much of the first half of this book may not be news. The reporting and analysis of events from the moment the last trigger was pulled, on the other hand, may well be a revelation. This is one of those rare achievements that get better with every page. My hat is off to the author.

New History

I always knew of Kent State, but never knew of the reality of it. The ridiculousness of the how things happened shocked me. This was an excellent explanation of exactly what happened.