Kent State 1970-related 

BOOK REVIEWS

RECOMMENDED BOOKS  and

NOT RECOMMENDED BOOKS

by Alan Canfora, Director

-- Kent May 4 Center --

Below I offer my expert opinion about the variety of new and used books available about the 1970 Kent State massacre tragedy. Some books are excellent and some are rather biased.

I get many requests for book reviews.

Below are my expert reviews of

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

and

NOT RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

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"KENT STATE 1970"

RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

(1) THE KENT STATE COVER-UP by Joseph Kelner & James Munves; Kelner, our victims' families' lawsuit trial attorney, wrote this excellent book based on sworn testimony under oath in Federal Court.

(2) THE TRUTH ABOUT KENT STATE by Peter Davies; An early book, Davies courageously exposes the cover-up of murder. Many important photos.

(3) THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON CAMPUS UNREST by US Government Printing Office; Many photos, based on official FBI investigation. Thorough Jackson State section, too. Also known as "The Scranton Commission" Report.

(4) MAYDAY by J. Gregory Payne of Emerson College; Good info about Kent, 1970, our four martyrs & NBC-TV's 1981 docudrama.

(5) THIRTEEN SECONDS by Joe Eszterhaus & Michael Roberts; A good, factual early book by a great Hollywood writer.

(6) FIRE IN THE STREETS by Milton Viorst; Final chapter features my Alan Canfora narrative about Kent, 1970. *watch here at http://alancanfora.com/  for my memoir available in 2005!*

(7) FROM CAMELOT TO KENT SATE by Robert Morrison; Features narrative of Kent wounded student Tom Grace. Tom Grace & I arrived at Kent State in 1968; we both joined the College Democrats in 1968 while we were dorm room-mates; we joined Kent SDS together in 1969; during 1969-70, we were room-mates off-campus; on May 4, 1970, at Kent State, we were both shot & wounded. We both lived to tell the story.

(8) KENT STATE: HOW MURDER WENT UNPUNISHED by I.F. Stone; a very good book by the late IF Stone--one of America's great patriotic muckrakers. Stone harshly criticizes the Ohio National Guard and the government for the cover-up of murder. Includes the summary of the conclusions of the US Justice Department's FBI investigation.

(9) THE MIDDLE OF THE COUNTRY, edited by Bill Warren. An early, quickly-published book of May 4, 1970, eyewitness observations by Kent State students. Good, passionate, first-hand 1970 commentaries.

NOTE: These nine RECOMMENDED BOOKS listed above have good photos & information. Unfortunately, these seven RECOMMENDED are mostly "out-of-print" and are available only in libraries, used-book stores, etc. If you seek these RECOMMENDED BOOKS, you can BORROW THEM FOR FREE from your local library or, if unavailable there, ask your librarian to BORROW THE BOOKS FREE from another library by "INTER-LIBRARY LOAN".

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NOTE: You can order great, often cheap, new/used "Kent State 1970" books online/fast:

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bx=off&ds=30&bi=0&kn=%22kent+state%22+1970&sortby=2

NOTE: at this great abebooks.com new/used books web site, view all the pages of books (at the bottom of the abebooks.com web site) to find the title/price/quality for the book you seek...

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NOT-RECOMMENDED 

"Kent State 1970" BOOKS:

(1)  KENT STATE--WHAT HAPPENED & WHY by James A. Michener;

Michener's book has some good vignettes about the slain students & some other aspects but much unreliable, biased opinion & distorted info as well. Still, Michener's is the most widely read book, so far.

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(2)  FOUR DEAD IN OHIO by William A. Gordon;

published in 1995--an earlier version, titled THE FOURTH OF MAY, was published in 1990. There's speculation in Kent that Gordon will opportunistically re-publish his mediocre book a third time with a third title in the year 2005 & again attempt to deceive unsuspecting customers.

Bill Gordon's book contains many factual errors & biased opinions and he's offended many of the key people involved in our longstanding battle against the Kent cover-up. In his book's preface, amidst many inaccuracies, Gordon wrote the following misinformed statements:

p.17: "...I am not aware of a single historian who has argued that the tragedy had that much impact on the conduct of American policy in Vietnam."

p.17: "...we cannot conclude that the killings were a pivotal or watershed event..."

p.18: "...these were the most popular murders ever committed in the United States."

Such gross distortions are plentiful in Gordon's book and are quite offensive to those of us who know the truth and also those of you who seek the truth about one of the greatest tragedies in American history.

Bill Gordon, a tourist-guide author living in California, is not a legitimate Kent State "expert", in my opinion.

Finally, I would like to note, Gordon was recently disappointed when he failed in his attempt to interject himself into our Universal film project.

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(3)  April 22, 2005: a NEW mediocre Kent State 1970-related BOOK:

"13 SECONDS: A LOOK BACK AT THE KENT STATE SHOOTINGS"

by Philip Caputo

Alan's book review:  

Philip Caputo has a mediocre new book, "13 Seconds", but the free DVD is excellent! This weak book without photos is one of the most unhelpful books ever about Kent State 1970. The DVD alone is worth the $20 cost of the book/DVD package, so I recommend buying this package at your local bookstore or online.

Too bad the book is mostly awful. What a shame such a previously great author would botch the task of writing a modern Kent State 1970 book.

Fortunately, the excellent documentary film DVD, "Kent State: The Day The War Came Home", is offered attached to the book package. The DVD documentary is the best ever and features 1970 student victims, eyewitnesses, guardsmen, mothers of our martyrs and great 1970 film footage. This fine 50-minute DVD documentary film, originally shown on THE LEARNING CHANNEL in 2000 and on DISCOVERY CHANNEL in recent years, is finally available (cheap) to the public!

So, buy the book/DVD package online for under $20, sit back and learn from the fine DVD documentary film and use this lame book as a coaster for your beer or coffee. Or sell the book at Ebay for a few bucks and keep the excellent educational DVD.

What a bargain -- for the DVD!

This quite disappointing book really is a poor volume of mostly copied/pasted internet info along with recycled info from other people's books about Kent 1970. The thin book I read last night, only 122 pages written by Caputo, mostly regurgitates obtuse opinions of others with no footnotes or index. Nearly 80 pages of very old free-internet 1970 information is added as filler in appendices. The book is promoted online, however, as 207 pages. This 122 page essay by Caputo would be more appropriate as a long magazine article perhaps.

Caputo admits he was a young 1970 newspaper reporter sitting on an airplane from Chicago to Cleveland when we were gunned down at Kent State on May 4, 1970. Later in the book, he claims he "was there" at Kent. Several times he admits he simply cannot recall exactly where he was at times during 1970!

To my knowledge, Caputo never interviewed me or anybody else from Kent 1970 for this surprising volume of emptiness. Yet Caputo feels free to pronounce his off-the-wall analysis of the intentions and impact of everybody he does not understand. A strange approach, in my opinion.  

Yo, Phil. If you wanted the real story you should have contacted the real people instead of parroting bad info from questionable second-hand others. Why not follow the lead of the brilliant DVD film-makers who actually interviewed real Kent State eyewitnesses?

I wonder: did Caputo even bother to watch the great DVD documentary? He could have learned a thing or two, I'm certain.

This book is not a legitimate search for the complicated set of facts, circumstances and developments of May, 1970, at Kent State University. Philip Caputo, probably based upon poor advice, has merely assembled a recycled sham of poorly-selected, previously-published information and misinformation.

Caputo's obvious May 4 mentor is a fellow-May 4 charlatan named William A. Gordon -- a notorious California tour-guide author who despises most May 4 activists. It's too bad Caputo praises, mimics and supports Bill Gordon's questionable old distortions throughout this "new" Caputo book.

Disregarding the 4 million students who shut down over 800 colleges during the National Student Strike of May, 1970, anti-activists Caputo/Gordon declare the May 4 massacre as America's "most popular murders". Overlooking numerous legitimate historians, Caputo/Gordon also state Kent 1970 had little impact upon US war policies in SE Asia.

Caputo/Gordon now exaggerate KSU anti-war student militance in 1970 -- militance similar to hundreds of other campuses without massacres -- and mostly let the Kent State killers off the hook.

Like his pal William A. Gordon, Philip Caputo is not a legitimate May 4 "expert", in my opinion. Caputo/Gordon are second-hand information interpreters with questionable biases. Seeking to capitalize upon the 35th anniversary of the 1970 Kent tragedy, this book was clearly rushed to publication.

Memo to Phil Caputo: next time you write a quickie-book, get a legitimate fact checker. Kent, Ohio, is located in Portage County, not "Porter County". The Ohio National Guard invaded Kent on May 2, not May 3, 1970. Numerous other errors of fact and opinion are found throughout this hastily-compiled bit of "journalism".

Caputo closes his book with a groovy appeal for perpetual pacifism among people everyplace always. How nice. He tips his hat to well-known pacifists and implies the tired old "blame the victim" mentality we've heard so many times before.

Such an experienced journalist, a Pulitzer Prize winner when he was younger, could have summarized all available factual information for students and others seeking this valuable historical information. But, no. Caputo has chosen the easy way to publish fast in 2005: copy/paste/regurgitate/distort/sell.

This little book is a HUGE disappointment.

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NOTE: about these three NOT-RECOMMENDED BOOKS: unlike the recommended books, these three not-recommended books are still available to the unsuspecting buyer.

Beware. If you must buy one of these available books, I'd suggest Michener's, not Gordon's or Caputo's ... much more value for your hard-earned money.

But, remember, the fantastic educational DVD attached free to Caputo's weak book is EXCELLENT!

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NOTE: You can order great, often cheap, new and used "Kent State 1970" books online/fast:

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bx=off&ds=30&bi=0&kn=%22kent+state%22+1970&sortby=2

NOTE: at this great abebooks.com books web site, view all the pages of available new/used books (at the bottom of the abebooks.com web site) to find the title/price/quality for the book you seek...

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