Sandy Hook

An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth

By: Elizabeth Williamson

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Elizabeth Williamson

Slate, "25 Best Crime Books, Podcasts, and Documentaries of All Time"

Vanity Fair’s “Books We Can't Stop Thinking About”

Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Longlist 2023

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Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson’s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists.

On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed twenty first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Ten years later, Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society.

One of the nation’s most devastating mass shootings, Sandy Hook was used to create destructive and painful myths. Driven by ideology or profit, or for no sound reason at all, some people insisted it never occurred, or was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing Americans’ firearms. They tormented the victims’ relatives online, accosted them on the street and at memorial events, accusing them of faking their loved ones’ murders. Some family members have been stalked and forced into hiding. A gun was fired into the home of one parent.

Present at the creation of this terrible crusade was Alex Jones’s Infowars, a far-right outlet that aired noxious Sandy Hook theories to millions and raised money for the conspiracy theorists’ quest to “prove” the shooting didn’t happen. Enabled by Facebook, YouTube, and other social media companies’ failure to curb harmful content, the conspiracists’ questions grew into suspicion, suspicion grew into demands for more proof, and unanswered demands turned into rage. This pattern of denial and attack would come to characterize some Americans’ response to almost every major event, from mass shootings to the coronavirus pandemic to the 2020 presidential election, in which President Trump’s false claims of a rigged result prompted the January 6, 2021, assault on a bastion of democracy, the U.S. Capitol.

The Sandy Hook families, led by the father of the youngest victim, refused to accept this. Sandy Hook is the story of their battle to preserve their loved ones’ legacies even in the face of threats to their own lives. Through exhaustive reporting, narrative storytelling, and intimate portraits, Sandy Hook is the definitive book on one of the most shocking cultural ruptures of the internet era.

Real truth

This book exposes the horrible nature of people who look to profit at the expense of truly virtuous and innocent people. A MUST READ FOR THOSE WHO SEEK TRUTH!!

Important Book!

If you are looking for gory details about how Adam Lanza slaughtered 20 beautiful kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School, look somewhere else. If you want a compassionate, factual, frightening story about a menacing conspiracy theorist named Alex Jones, who preys on our society every day, and how the amazing parents of Sandy Hook mustered the courage to stand up to his ugliness in the name of the truth and in the name of their children who died in such a cruel and needless tragedy, then this is your lucky day. Elizabeth Williamson has not only done her homework, she has become entrenched with these families and tells their story from the heart! Our Constitutional Rights are to be defended, but not abused!

Required reading for anyone who wants to understand mass killings and misinformation

The first few chapters are very emotionally difficult to get through, but the remaining content is enlightening and worth the trouble.

Thanks to the author, & the sources, from Bob

Gripping, I recommend this book, an overview of an horrific event and the continuing fallout

Gripping story, yet irritating voice artist.

I loved the narrative and empathy of the author. Despite the narrator, still a very worthwhile read.