Kent State re-creates the divided cultural landscape of America during the Vietnam War and heightened popular anxieties around the country. On college campuses, teach-ins, sit-down strikes and demonstrations exposed the growing rift between the left and the right. Many students opposed the war, and were uneasy over poor and working-class kids drafted and sent to Vietnam in their place. Some developed a hatred for everything associated with authority, while others resolved to uphold law and order at any cost.

Focusing on the thirteen victims of the Kent State shooting and a painstaking reconstruction of the days surrounding it, Brian VanDeMark draws on new research and interviews—including the perspective of National Guardsmen who were there. The result is a complete reckoning with the tragedy that marked the end of the sixties.