Books from the Backlog, hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books, is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your shelf unread.
I am featuring books in the order that they were added to my Goodreads To-Read shelf, so sometimes there will be a couple weeks in a row of books on the same topic.
Neglected Book of the Week
Why did I add 13 Seconds to my TBR?
Because it never should have happened. Four unarmed students were murdered by the the Ohio National Guard during protests of Nixon's Cambodia Campaign. Nine others were wounded. Not all injured or killed were protesting, some were walking across campus or observing the protest from afar.
Have you read this book, or is it somewhere on your TBR? If you've read it, would you recommend it to others?
Yet another tragic incident I lived through, though I was not there and did not personally know anyone who got killed or injured. For myself and my friends this was the moment we went completely radical in protesting that war. Also, in Chrissie Hynd's memoir Reckless, My Life as a Pretender, she tells about being a student at Kent State during the incident! https://keepthewisdom.blogspot.com/2017/11/reckless-my-life-as-pretender.html
ReplyDeleteI would love to know more about your protesting the Vietnam War! I can not even fathom what protesting was like during the 60s and 70s. People protested constantly for these super important things, and it brought about change. I feel like slowly this is happening here, but too slowly. A lot of people in the US are galvanized by what's taking place in Hong Kong and London, and I am hoping that the massive protests scheduled will not only have a major impact that day, but continued impact, and that change will come from it.
DeleteI'll check out the review, and possibly the book as well. I didn't know she went to Kent State!
All these years later I'm still shocked by this, even as coarse as our society has currently become.
ReplyDeleteSame. It is so unimaginable to me. I am hopeful for the planned protests in September that not only will they have an impact that day, but a lasting impact that is felt and leads to change. I also fear a situation like Kent State happening again.
DeleteThis is an event that I should probably know more about. I have heard a bit about it but feel like it could be important to know more, especially in today's world. Great pick, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think it is very timely! The stars aligned in order for this book to come up here in the couple weeks preceding what could potentially be massive protests in D.C., following the protests in Hong Kong that continue, and in London where ol' Boris quickly lost his majority. Change is coming. I only hope it is the positive change we need.
DeleteSounds interesting! The 60's were such a turbulent time, and the people that were young adults during that time are now elderly.
ReplyDeleteYes! That is why it is so, so important that the younger generations understand what happened and why, otherwise we will forever be repeating the same mistakes and we can't allow that to happen.
DeleteThis is still shocking to me, but it was part of the time. I suspect our current events would be shocking to others.
ReplyDeleteI most definitely hope that what is happening now in the US is shocking to others, because is atrociously ridiculous. I hope this is only a short chapter in our history and that in 2020 we see massive change at all levels of government.
DeleteIs this anti-Brexit protests in London you support? So many US citizens seem to be offering opinions on Brexit and telling us UK citizens how we should vote. The fact is at the moment unelected officials in Brussels can tell us what laws we can and can't have, what penalties we can and can't impose on British criminals, force us to keep foreign criminals in our country, order British fisherman out of British fishing waters and allow foreign boats in their place, stop us having a say on who we let into the UK, dictate who we can trade with. We should have the right to elect our MPs to decide on our rules and laws without interference from abroad. We had a democratic vote and we chose to leave the EU and take back control of our country. Mps agreed to honour and deliver the result yet now they are doing all they can to overturn the election result. That is not democracy. Boris is trying to deliver what we voted for and that should be allowed to happen.
ReplyDeleteI said nothing of supporting either side, and people who are informed about issues are allowed to have opinions. There was a lot of dishonesty and misinformation about what Brexit would actually look like and people are realizing that now. I am well aware of how the EU works and what it does, because it is something that interests me, as politics in general interests me. However, if you reread the statement I made in my reply up there which I believe you are referencing, I support the right to protest, which is what has happened in Hong Kong and the UK. If people are realizing now that the terms are going to be terrible, then they have that right to protest. That is democracy and should also be allowed to happen.
DeleteWe had a democratic vote to leave the EU and it's not democracy to try and overturn it. People regard US citizens as patriots for taking back control of their country from Britain-though they had to fight a war to do it. Yet when we democratically vote to take back control without violence, which is our right, we are called liars, racists, facists, idiots and worse by these Remainers who can't accept the result. They can protest if they want but it isn't fair to also threaten civil disobedience, violence, shutting down London, take vote results to court, break Parliament rules to take over business in the chamber and not let the PM do his job. That is not democracy. You can't just demand the vote results are overturned every time you don't agree with a result. If Hillary had won your election and Congress decided, no we're having Trump as we don't care what the Electoral College or voters say, there would have been riots!
DeleteThere are people who voted to leave who now regret that because the terms and information was not clear, or was incorrect. I've heard all the arguments for and against leaving and have good friends in the UK who are absolutely furious about the vote so yes, I do support their right to protest what they feel is a horrible mistake.
DeleteCivil disobedience is how the Civil Rights Movement here started to claim equality for all Americans, black or white, so I am not against that. Protests here daily are disrupting life for ICE specifically, among other, in order to bring more attention and try to stop the current admin policy of detaining and separating families seeking asylum, something that they are allowed to do by law.
Hillary actually did win the election. She won the popular vote by over 3 million votes. However, the members of the Electoral College did not vote the way their constituents did, so trumplethinskin took office that way and is unequivocally an illegitimate president and protests have not stopped since he was elected. And all of this brings us back to my original point anyway, in saying that if we can be inspired by the protests in Hong Kong and London, then the planned marches and protests coming up in a couple weeks CAN be successful. None of this was about Brexit, but was about the power of protesting en masse.
a lot of people think that the america is different from other countries, but it is obvious to me that we have many of the same issues as hosts of other countries, yet i wouldn't want to live anywhere else. i was quite young when this happened and do remember it and the vietnam 'war'.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
We are not any different, agreed. We are just larger and thus our problems tend to be bigger and on a grander scale.
DeleteSuch a timely book to bring up. This was before my time, but very relevant still today.
ReplyDeleteBefore mine as well, that is why I am so interested in reading about it. I do fear that it could happen again.
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