President Kennedy Has Been Shot (Hardcover)

~ Newseum (Author), Bennett (Author), Trost (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Combining original interviews with previously available material, this volume by the Newseum (a museum of news sponsored by the Freedom Forum foundation) guides readers through the assassination of John F. Kennedy from his arrival in Dallas the morning of November 22, 1963, to the funeral four days later, including the arrest and murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. The emphasis on how the journalists covering the story perceived it adds an illuminating perspective to well-known events, communicating with immediacy the chaos of the moment. Journalists had to draw on all their resourcefulness to report the story while struggling to maintain their professional distance. The account is filled with fascinating details, from a description of the AP and UPI reporters fighting over a car phone to Dallas reporter Tom Alyca's recollection of staying inside the Texas School Book Depository after investigators closed it off, then smuggling out photos of the shooter's perch. The companion CD includes audio excerpts from radio and TV coverage and snippets of Dallas police communications, radio transmissions between the White House and the airborne, Tokyo-bound press secretary, Pierre Salinger, even a phone call from Lyndon Johnson to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Those who were alive 40 years ago remember the events so clearly because of the journalism commemorated here, but readers of all ages will be moved by the powerful testimony. 120 b&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A powerful, multimedia reliving of Kennedy's assassination, beginning with Air Force One landing at Love Field and ending with the president's internment at Arlington National Cemetery. The commentaries from some of the nation's foremost journalists, including Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, and Walter Cronkite, have a clarity, drama, and intensity that only newsmen of their stature can provide. An audio CD narrated by Rather provides actual news broadcasts, phone calls, police radio transmissions, and aircraft radio communication. The book-CD combination is so well done that many readers will feel as if they have experienced that fateful day.
John Kiefman, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks MediaFusion (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402201583
• ISBN-13: 978-1402201585
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #316,065 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Felt Like I Was Living Through This Again, November 3, 2003

By	C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Both newspaper reporters and television newscasters provide the reader with a review of the unforgettable four days in 1963 that jolted America. The book provides a nice mixture of photographs that are embedded into the consciousness of those who lived through this tragedy in addition to a text of newspaper and television reporters who were directly involved in informing the public. I, like other readers, found the book hard to put down, and went through the book in two sessions. Throughout the book it is mentioned how easy it was for reporters to gain access to places in 1963 that increased security would deny them nowadays. Memories will come flooding back to you if you lived through this period of American history. If you were too young to remember, or if you weren't alive at the time, this book, through text of those who reported the event, and the photographs will bring you back to the way it was. A CD accompanies the book narrated by Dan Rather to add to its reality. I would highly recommend this book to you.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly COMPELLING: puts you THERE, December 4, 2003

By	Joel L. Gandelman (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There has never been and may never be a book like this one. President Kennedy Has Been Shot combines the best of "oral history" (long-quotes from people who were there rather than a long newsmagazine-style narrative account) plus a pull-out-all-stops CD...that puts you BACK in 1963, even if you weren't born yet.

Where was I? I had just finished a (terrible) speech to run (unsuccessfully) for jr high school vice president. I was self-absorbed after my first-ever serious public speech. Right after I spoke a teacher got up and said something, there was a gasp and people filed out to the buses (it was time to go). I asked a teacher what happened and he said the title of this book: "President Kennedy has been shot..."

It doesn't matter if you lived through this time or not. The highly-detailed reminiscences plus excerpts from things said at time time -- coupled with the effective use in the book of text of key audio-news tracks on the incredible CD -- make this highly compelling. And you're shoved into 1963, whether you were alive then or not, when you hear the CD's radio and television news bulletins, the shooting of Oswald -- but especially the loud, shocked GASP from the crowd when the Boston Symphony's conductor tells the crowd that the President was assasinated. And then you hear the mournful gasp as he says he will play a funeral march...

It's all there in the text and the CD. Including things you didn't know at the time: authentic audio of Lady Bird Johnson's dramatic diary dictations, tapes of private phone calls by Johnson to J Edgar Hoover, Rose Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and a slew of news correspondents trying to cover a story. In the text you see how they covered it; in the CD you hear how some of them emotionally lost it.

This is THE amazingly-priced multimedia packet to get anyone who wants to learn more, recall, or learn for the first time about what happened on that awful Nov. 22, 1963 and on those wrenching days after it. The CD is worth the price of the book and CD; the book is worth the price of the book and CD.

I was reluctant to buy this at first. I thought it'd be seriously deficient and not do justice to the man or the tragedy. I was wrong on all counts.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put this book down!, October 31, 2003

By	C. Trost "CatRost" (CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gripping. Get prepared to be completely transported back to 1963. It is fascinating to re-live the events surrounding JFK's assassination through all the journalists and reporters who had unbelievable access to everyone involved. I couldn't put the book down!