Reclaiming history is a massive book on the Kennedy Assassination by the noted prosecutor and author Vince Bugliosi. It is broken into two "books". Book One, titled "Matters of Fact: What Happened" discusses the Assassination, the various investigations, the evidence, details Oswald's past and movements, and the mountain of evidence against him, and pointing to the fact that he was the only shooter.
In the second book, titled "Delusions of Conspiracy: What Didn't Happen", Bugliosi swats down the most prevalent conspiracy theories, refuting them point-by-point with detailed evidence and citations to bolster his conclusions. Of course, his ultimate conclusion is that there is no proof of conspiracy. He is quite condescending to most of the major conspiracy theorists, holding a special derision for Mark Lane and Oliver Stone, and makes no bones about the fact that he finds most of the conspiracy advocates to be batshit crazy.
The book reads like an extremely long law review article. Almost every sentence is footnoted, and many of the footnotes include a paragraph or more of text. The amount of text in the footnotes can probably fill their own book. As a result, it is not exactly the easiest thing to read but it provides a lot of detail. Obviously, the Kennedy Assassination is one of the most contentious points of debate in history. For people who don't believe there was a conspiracy, this book will just deepen their resolve. For those who do, nothing Bugliosi says, including the fact that such a conspiracy would require multiple people to stay quiet forever and never reveal anything, or that many of the various conspiracies contradict each other, will ever change their mind. So, it is pretty likely if you think that Oswald acted alone you will love this book and if you think something more nefarious was behind the Assassination, you will hate it. Personally, I think it is worth reading regardless of where you stand on the conspiracy issue, if nothing else, just for the fact that it is one of the most detailed books on the Kennedy Assassination out there.
In the second book, titled "Delusions of Conspiracy: What Didn't Happen", Bugliosi swats down the most prevalent conspiracy theories, refuting them point-by-point with detailed evidence and citations to bolster his conclusions. Of course, his ultimate conclusion is that there is no proof of conspiracy. He is quite condescending to most of the major conspiracy theorists, holding a special derision for Mark Lane and Oliver Stone, and makes no bones about the fact that he finds most of the conspiracy advocates to be batshit crazy.
The book reads like an extremely long law review article. Almost every sentence is footnoted, and many of the footnotes include a paragraph or more of text. The amount of text in the footnotes can probably fill their own book. As a result, it is not exactly the easiest thing to read but it provides a lot of detail. Obviously, the Kennedy Assassination is one of the most contentious points of debate in history. For people who don't believe there was a conspiracy, this book will just deepen their resolve. For those who do, nothing Bugliosi says, including the fact that such a conspiracy would require multiple people to stay quiet forever and never reveal anything, or that many of the various conspiracies contradict each other, will ever change their mind. So, it is pretty likely if you think that Oswald acted alone you will love this book and if you think something more nefarious was behind the Assassination, you will hate it. Personally, I think it is worth reading regardless of where you stand on the conspiracy issue, if nothing else, just for the fact that it is one of the most detailed books on the Kennedy Assassination out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment