Kent State Shooting History

My paper explores how popular culture has created a historical framework of May 4th that evoked an emotional collective memory for people who were and were not present on May 4th, 1970. The tragedy at Kent State University has been captured on camera and has inspired songs, movies, and plays even decades later. Historical background will be provided to understand the horrendous incident of May 4th 1970 and the role popular culture plays in its history. The background surrounding the Kent State Shootings needs to be explained and uncovered in a variety of ways. The reader must be able to understand the zeitgeist of the 1970s, the culture of Kent State University, what happened to spark the Kent State shootings, how popular culture internalized the shooting through various mediums and then generated a collective memory, and how popular culture has affected the history of the Kent State shooting.
Creating a strong argument will depend on establishing a clear connection from my primary sources to my secondary sources. My primary sources will include songs, plays, oral histories, and memorials. These secondary sources paired with my multiple secondary sources …show more content…
This book offers insight into the culture of Kent State University long before the shootings. This book will add to Kenneth Heineman’s interpretation of the incident at Kent State but traces a longer history of the culture at Kent State University. This book highlights how from the beginning Kent State and its creation as a normal school. The author highlights how its rapid growth as institution affected the small city of Kent. By using this source as background information on the growth and culture of Kent State and how the institution differs from the local and state area. The goal is to place the Kent State University history into a broader scope than just the May 4th