Kent State; What Happened and Why

New York: Random House, 1971. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Good/Fair. xii, 559, [5] pages. Endpaper maps. Occasional footnotes. Maps. Illustrations. DJ has wear, soiling, tears and chips. James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907 - October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. Michener had numerous bestsellers and works selected for Book of the Month Club, and was known for his meticulous research. Michener's novels include Tales of the South Pacific for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, Space, and Poland. His non-fiction works include Kent State, Iberia, about Spain and Portugal; his memoir The World Is My Home; and Sports in America. Return to Paradise combines fictional short stories with Michener's factual descriptions of the Pacific areas where they take place. Derived from a Kirkus review: Michener and staff have produced a collage of graphic accounts, reconstructions of student life and town sentiment, interpretations of the Kent State events of May 1970. About the shooting itself, the book says the Guard was not surrounded; no order to shoot was given; there is no evidence of a sniper and much evidence that the Guards were not all afraid for their lives. Michener insists that hard-core revolutionaries were out to force a confrontation. This claim is backed up by testimony that people with NLF flags were standing on the sidelines and yelling revenge afterward. Michener stresses campus visits by SDS leaders over the years. He acknowledges that the campus "straights" were passionately anti-war and anti-draft, that many moderates were glad to see the ROTC building burn. Michener makes a plea to spare peaceable radicals and junior faculty for the sake of free-flowing ideas. It is a work of interpretive journalism.