1970s history
A01=Brian VanDeMark
Author_Brian VanDeMark
Category=JPW
Category=NH
Category=NHK
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
massacre
school shooting
sds history
shooting
state violence
student protest
students for a democratic society
vietnam war history
Product details
- ISBN 9781324116851
- Weight: 359g
- Dimensions: 140 x 211mm
- Publication Date: 25 Nov 2025
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Kent State 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, and were uneasy over poor and working-class kids drafted and sent to Vietnam in their place. Some developed a hatred for 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, Brian VanDeMark draws on new research and interviews—including the perspective of National Guardsmen who were there. The result is a complete reckoning with the tragedy that marked the end of the sixties.
Brian VanDeMark taught history at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, for thirty-five years. The author of several books on American history, he also coauthored Robert McNamara’s best-selling Vietnam memoir, In Retrospect. He lives in Maryland.
