Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties

Abstract

Microhistories of particular campuses in the turbulent 1960s have grown in number, adding to our understanding of the protest years. Just as an urban historian recognizes that Boston is not Los Angeles, campus historians have come to appreciate that the University of California, Berkeley, is not Penn State. The demographics, history, and politics of the region in which a campus is embedded influenced the nature of protest and the community response. In his finely detailed and engagingly written study of Kent State University, Thomas M. Grace has made a major scholarly contribution. Although a participant in some of the events he describes (indeed, the Ohio National Guard caught him in its cross fire on May 4, 1970), Grace provides an evenhanded analysis. His discussion of the Ohio National Guard shows an appreciation for the troops' perspective, and he delivers a convincing rebuttal to the popular description of the Kent State tragedy as “draft dodgers shooting draft dodgers.” Many of the Ohio Guardsmen had already completed their military service, and a number were employed in law enforcement. Given their backgrounds, the soldiers knew the consequences of firing a barrage into a crowd of people. Some of the students were throwing rocks, but others were simply heading to and from class.

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