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Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio

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Description

From Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, comes the Eisner and ALA/YALSA Alex Award-winning tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings, told in graphic novel form. Named a “Best Book of the Year” by New York Times, Forbes, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and NPR! Derf Backderf takes us back to the age of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Woodstock, and the Cold War and explores, in words and images, a scene of tragedy: the campus of Kent State University, where National Guard Troops attacked unarmed protestors and killed four students (Allison Beth Krause, age 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20, and William Knox Schroeder, age 19). On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, four students were killed and nine shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children—a shocking event burned into our national memory. The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. More than four million students participated in organized walkouts at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools, the largest student strike in the history of the United States at that time. It was a day that shocked the nation and helped turn the tide of public opinion against America’s war in Vietnam. A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike. Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart. Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent—as relevant today as it was in 1970. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harry N. Abrams; Illustrated edition (September 8, 2020)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419734849


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 47


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 1.4 x 10.7 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #80,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #67 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels #139 in Vietnam War History (Books) #703 in U.S. State & Local History


#67 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels:


#139 in Vietnam War History (Books):


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If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Tuesday, Nov 26

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Top Amazon Reviews


  • Important Graphic Novel - Good for Teaching about Campus Activism and Kent State
I was looking for a book to teach in a class on campus activism, and this turned out to be perfect. It is haunting and powerful, but also well-researched and humanizing. First-year college students loved it and found themselves relating to the characters in 2024.
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024 by Catherine

  • It’s been half a century, but it could still happen again today.
The events that unfold in Derf Backderf’s Kent State happened just a few days after I was born. I can’t imagine what my parents were thinking about the world at the time, what with the Vietnam war raging, Nixon in office, and now troops firing on college students. I definitely knew about the massacre, but I didn’t know the full story that led up to it. Backderf does an amazing job on setting the stage for what happened that day. We meet the men and women who would eventually become unfortunate victims of government and military overreach. These young adults, much like the protesters out in force today, were energetic, passionate human beings who believed in justice and equality, and who were willing to fight for it through protest. Reading the events that led up to the massacre showed me that, while what happened at Kent State should never happen again, it very well could, especially when we have a President in office who will use concussion grenades to clear a path from the White House to a church for a ridiculous photo op. Even Nixon would look at what Trump’s doing and say, “Damn, that’s messed up.” But I digress; Kent State is another spectacular effort from Backderf. His drawings are iconic and convey the emotions that were running high at the time. Having read several of his previous releases, I have to say that Kent State is his best yet. Definitely recommend for fans of fact-based graphic novels, or for anyone who likes a good story told well. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2020 by wakamole

  • Horrifying and Accurate and Relatable
If you know someone who thinks graphic novels are the same thing as comic books, give them this book to read. Derf Backderf's recounting of the Kent State Shootings is meticulously researched, thoughtfully presented, and all the more relatable since it combines text and drawings. Throughout, Backderf succeeds in being objective and fair, presenting the viewpoints of the students, administrators, politicians, townspeople, and guardsmen. If you don't know much about the Kent State Shootings, this is an excellent place to start. If you do know quite a bit about the shootings, you will likely learn something here. Despite getting all three of my degrees at Kent State, I learned quite a bit about the shootings that I didn't know before. Be warned, however, this is a very disturbing read, as it should be. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2021 by Redtail

  • An Important Graphic Novel
I remember liking Derf's work on a little comic strip called "The City," so when I ran across this humungous graphic novel at the library, I had to check it out. Having read it, I knew I wanted a copy of my own! This is more than a retelling of the tragic story of the four young people who died at a Kent State anti-war rally; Derf really did his homework, and he is as fair to both sides of the story as he can be. He exhaustively cites all his sources at (almost) the back of the book. If you have a kid who doesn't like to read history, get him this graphic novel. The material is more relevant now than it has been for decades. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2023 by L. M. Gulick

  • Very engaging, well-researched
I knew just a little bit about the whole Kent State events, and had no particular interest in them--I bought the book because I like the author. I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging the story was. The author brings the people involved to life, and provides back story and context for everything. Very well-researched, with citations for everything. It can be a difficult read to see how the Federal and State governments reacted to what were initially peaceful protests. The book itself is divided into days leading up to the event, and I found that after reading each day, I had to take a break. The book particularly resonates in our current period of protests and clashes between protesters and authorities. Let us hope that it never comes to that again. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2020 by Robert Gidley

  • Memories
A good feel for what happened. It is hard to believe 50 years ago. I was a freshman in college in Ohio at the time.
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2020 by TOD

  • Who is running the show!
Depends on who you know was there.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023 by David J. Guilliams

  • An engaging, detailed account of one of the darkest moments in American history.
I was in high school when the Kent State massacre went down. And like a lot of Americans, I didn't believe what I heard when I heard about it. I seriously thought that my country had finally lost it. This well-researched and well-written account of what happened over 50 years ago reveals, in unsparing detail, the story of the massacre and of the events leading up to it. Details which sometimes prove every bit as disturbing as the massacre itself. Derf Backderf does an excellent job of telling and illustrating the full story of this ugly low point in our history. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2021 by Paul Goldschmidt

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