Kent State Shooting

Adamek, Raymond J. and Lewis, Jerry M. “Social Control Violence and Radicalizat The Kent State Case.” Social Forces, Vol. 51, No. 3, 1 March, 1973, pp. 342-347. This article focuses on the uses and effects of excessive force and social control during the Kent State shootings. The authors hypothesize that social control will either radicalize a subculture or pacify it. Interviews with more than two hundred Kent State students in the years following the massacre showed that at least initially, social control served to radicalize. Bills, Scott L.

(Ed.) Kent State/May 4: Echoes Through a Decade. Kent, OH: Kent University Press. Published by the Kent State University Press, this book provides extensive and multidisciplinary coverage of the May 4, 1970 events. Interviews comprise a large portion of the primary source evidence used in the book, which also includes commentary from abroad, interviews with law enforcement, and analyses of how the event did and did not change American society and politics. Hariman, Robert and Lucaites, John Louis.

“Dissent and emotional management in a liberal-democratic society: The Kent state iconic photograph.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 5-31. This article takes a unique approach to the study of the Kent State protest and subsequent shootings, focusing on media coverage and responses to the iconic photographs of the event. The authors show how visual imagery of historical events can construct popular narratives, shaping identity and political culture. Moreover, the authors show how visual imagery with emotional content can either motivate or stifle dissent. Lewis, Jerry M.

“A Study of the Kent State Incident Using Smesler’s Theory of Collective Behavior.” Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 42, No. 2, April 1972, pp. 87-96. Approaching the Kent State University protest and shooting from a sociological perspective enables greater understanding of how to conceptualize the event historically. In this article, the author evaluates several theories of collective behavior including structural conduciveness, structural strain, and mobilization to help historians apply lessons learned from Kent to possible future issues involving the potential use of social control during political dissent. Lewis, Jerry M.

and Hensley, Thomas R. “The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Historical Accuracy.” http://www.stetson.edu/law/conferences/highered/archive/media/higher-ed-archives-2009/ii-lewis-may-4- shooting-at-kent-state-pdf.pdf This article reveals some of the methodological problems in reconstructing the events that took place before, during, and after the historic May 4, 1970 Kent State protest and shooting. According to the authors, an abundance of information does not necessarily prevent the spread of misinformation. The authors provide a cogent and comprehensive overview of causes and effects.

Works Cited Adamek, Raymond J. and Lewis, Jerry M. “Social Control Violence and Radicalizat The Kent State Case.” Social Forces, Vol. 51, No. 3, 1 March, 1973, pp. 342-347.