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67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence Hardcover – April 12, 2016

by Howard Means (Author)

45 customer reviews

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for 67 Shots

“In Howard Means' fine hands, we discern how the terrible events at Kent State unfolded—relentlessly, ineluctably—like a Greek tragedy. Through dogged and imaginative reporting, 67 Shots shows us how the tragedy fed into, and was fed by, the larger maelstrom of the times. In this definitive account, Means has deftly extracted Kent State from the amber and exposed it to fresh air once again.”—Hampton Sides, author of In the Kingdom of Ice and Hellhound On His Trail

“Howard Means does a marvelous job of weaving together the many strands of memory and the records of the times to create a nuanced portrayal of a moment in American history too often reduced to the lyrics of a Neil Young song. This balanced account does justice to the perspectives of students, National Guardsmen, campus administrators, and local residents alike, both for and against the demonstrations.”—Kenneth Hammond, Chairman, Department of History, New Mexico State University, and Kent State student-protest leader (1970)

San Francisco Book Review, 4/4/16
“Howard Means' look at a horrible moment in US history is crucial to understanding the law, politics, basic rights and how occasionally all three clash, and how the former fail the latter.”

Library Journal, 4/15/16
“An intimate look at a tragedy that could not be predicted but was perhaps inevitable.”

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 4/22/16
“Means draws upon scores of interviews and a rich archival record to dispel numerous myths that have grown up around the events culminating on May 4, 1970, with four dead in Ohio.”

Columbus Dispatch, 4/24/16
“67 Shots is indispensable in understanding the sine-wave pattern of tension that began on the streets of Kent three nights before National Guardsmen fired on protesters.”

Washington Independent Review of Books, 4/26/16
“A fresh look at an era-defining U.S. tragedy.”

Christian Science Monitor, 5/10/16
“This isn't history writing at a distance. Means interviewed many of the players, major and minor, in this tragedy. Their personal stories give 67 Shots a deeply human feel and turn it into one of the most heartbreaking books in memory.”

PopMatters, 5/18/16
“Means weaves a precise and comprehensive narrative that paints an accurate and balanced retelling of events.”

Providence Journal, 6/2/16
“Means manages to grab Kent State from the murky recesses of our national memory. In so doing, he shows how the Vietnam War affected everything about our own sense of ourselves.”

"[Howard] Means provides the most careful examination of the tragedy that beset Kent State University and the US on May 4, 1970."
―Choice, December 2016

"[A] superb book...balanced, detailed and compellingly written."

―Vietnam Magazine

About the Author

Howard Means is the author or coauthor of ten books, including the first biography of Colin Powell and Louis Freeh's bestselling memoir My FBI. He has collaborated on dozens of titles, including bestsellers by Robert Baer (See No Evil, Sleeping with the Devil), George Tenet (At the Center of the Storm), and David Wessel (In Fed We Trust, Red Ink). A former syndicated columnist (King Features), Means was senior editor at Washingtonian magazine from 1989-2000. He lives in rural Virginia.

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (April 12, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0306823799
ISBN-13: 978-0306823794
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 45 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #125 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > War & Peace
- #2401 in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources
- #4347 in Books > History > Americas > United States > State & Local

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Travis T Brown jr

67 Shots: On Target for Anyone Who Lived thru the 1960's, or Is Living in America Today. A superb and rewarding read!

May 13, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Howard Means has written a masterful book here. It is several things, each important: a thoughtful account of a pivotal event that came to define, perhaps over-define, a fractured time and place; an analysis of what went wrong -- seemingly everything by everyone -- and how complexity and combustibility may explain more than plans or intentions; and a meditation on how some events come to take on definitive, transformative meanings, out of proportion to the underlying facts, as grim as they might be. Means does all this with the style of a master story-teller, the skepticism of a journalist, and the calm voice of someone with a nuanced eye for the uses of history.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's, and so was fascinated to learn at this distance what actually happened, to the extent that can be reconstructed. And I live today in a hugely divided America, where trust is rare, and the demonization of the other side commonplace. This is a great book, both for then and for now. Buy it! Read it!

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DONALD S. GRANT

written 46 years after the Kent State Massacre is by far the best researched and best written account I have read

December 3, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I was a student at Kent State and witnessed what happened when the 4 students were killed and 9 others were wounded (one of which was pledge in our fraternity). I was also one of the students referenced on page 142 of this book who met with President Richard Nixon, Robert Haldeman and John Erlichman in the Oval Office in the Whitehouse two days after the killings.

I have followed the much of what has been written and movies or documentaries over the last 46 years. 67 shots, written 46 years after the Kent State Massacre is by far the best researched and best written account I have read. Mr. Means has also looked back from at what the those times were all about then and what the Kent State situation means historically in the big picture looking back over all these years.

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Susan K. Noel

Brilliant and Essential Reading

August 22, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a strong, important book -- essential to understanding the times and the impact of this one terrible moment. I've already studied a great deal about what happened at Kent State, and this book gave me so many details that I hadn't known. The research is deep and as complete as research can ever be -- the best thing a history book can ever provide. I was 15 at the time, and I remember. The Neil Young song can still give me shivers, especially the line "We're finally on our own." This book conveys with great accuracy how poisonous the "us vs. them" mentality grew in those years. Who, now, would believe that parents of killed students received letters saying "They should have shot more them." If there is blame to be assigned, if it can't, even now, be called just a tragic accident, then this book does a brilliant job of laying out exactly who dropped the ball, exactly how wrong decisions were made. I was moved, I felt it all again, and I was educated by this book. The writing is clear and rigorous. Absolutely brilliant.

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Walker

These are not happy memories, but in Means's skilled hands they come ...

April 12, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Reading the first few pages of 67 Shots plunged me back into the midst of the Vietnam War in a visceral manner. As my stomach knotted and my throat tightened, I could hear the thump of helicopters, the crack of rifles, and the angry chants of students demanding an end to the war that was ripping the nation apart. These are not happy memories, but in Means's skilled hands they come alive once again. Using lean, understated prose, 67 Shots leads us through the most horrifying domestic incident of those fearful days: the murder of four young demonstrators in Ohio. The immediacy of the descriptions and the acuity of the analysis help those of us who lived through the era finally understand what we experienced. For younger people, the book will serve as a cautionary tale, proof against the war cries of malevolent politicians who urge us to turn the Middle East into a glowing mass and to bomb North Korea back into the Stone Age. This is an important book, as well as one that provides a most satisfying -- if unsettling -- read.

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Matt Rhodes

Nearly 50 years later, lessons are still being learned

August 31, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The tragedy at Kent State, one of many at home and abroad during the Vietnam era, occurred just two months after my birth. In all the years since, I had not availed myself of the opportunity to learn much about that horrible weekend. It was only after a visit to the campus a few weeks ago - time spent walking in the footsteps of the students and guardsmen - that I was moved to read more. This book is an outstanding account of the prelude, events and aftermath of May 4. The author has done an excellent job of holding both sides accountable for the mistakes that led to the shooting, but at the same time ensures we never forget that, at the end of the day, American troops shot and killed American citizens. The faults are many and the causes are clear, but the loss of life and innocence that day is a tragedy that should have been avoided. The reader will learn a great deal from and about the participants and witnesses, and about the many matches that together ignited a fuse that had already been primed. PBS referred to May 4 as the day the '60s died; this book is an excellent way of discovering just how true that statement really is.

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Amazon Customer

Kent State: The Real Story

September 3, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was a senior a few weeks from graduation at a large Midwestern university . When we heard about the shootings, We were only concerned about upcoming final exams and upcoming graduation. Would protests occur on our campus?
Would our launch into the real world be delayed?
.

I remember watching Nixon' Presentation on Cambodia on TV. IT'S had a high draft lottery number so the War in Vietnam and KENT State were a million miles away.

This book awakened me to the true, complete story.

There was more to it than finals and graduation.

A must read for anyone who went to college in in the 1960's and early 1970's.

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Amazon Customer

Heartfelt

October 7, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The author and I are the same age and we were just out of college when Kent State erupted. That's a long time ago and most of the horribleness were either muted by my starting a career or long since vanished with age. Howard's thoughtful and heartfelt account of this tragedy is an excellent work and he brought back those faded memories. I learned, I experienced and I was able to see things I had not seen previously. This is a fresh, well researched and frankly honest view of the Kent State shootings. It is quite well done and I'm grateful to have read it.

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Most recent customer reviews

Susan Lewis

Four Stars

still reading

Published 7 months ago

Mrs. Kimberly S. Napier

Excellent research and retelling

In my house, we talked very little about Vietnam, or the violence with the IRA. I suppose that is why certain days live in my mind, this is one of them.Read more

Published 7 months ago

Joe Kessler

An informative but frustrating read

This began as kind of a frustrating read, in that the author assumed far more initial familiarity with the Kent State shootings than I personally was able to bring to the table.Read more

Published 8 months ago

Judy

67 Shots

A great sad read about a devastating period of American history that should never have happened.

Published 9 months ago

Stokes

Howard Means's examination of the Kent State tragedy is powerful ...

Howard Means's examination of the Kent State tragedy is powerful and timely. He does a masterful job of bringing together research, journalism, and storytelling to get at what...Read more

Published 1 year ago

Kristi Richardson

"These students are going to have to find out what law and order is all about." General Canterbury of the Ohio National Guard

"These students are going to have to find out what law and order is all about." General Canterbury of the Ohio National Guard

On May 4th, 1970 the National...Read more

Published 1 year ago

Did

Detailed, poignant, gripping story of America at the ...

Detailed, poignant, gripping story of America at the crossroads of its dark history. Today's news has its roots in our tragic past.

Published 1 year ago

S. Konkel

I loved this book

I loved this book! It is laid out brilliantly for a book on history and facts. I couldn't put it down! Well done Howard Means! I'm now a fan!

Published 1 year ago

Jake Boron

Awesome

I have a brother at KSU now, and think every student should read this. In addition, this book seems to apply to all we go through today in the political climate.Read more

Published 1 year ago

Carolyn R

Four Stars

It's informative but somewhat rehashed info

Published 1 year ago

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