Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

This is, after the 900-page Warren Commission Report, perhaps the single most important book about the Kennedy assassination, regardless of what you believe happened on that day. It opens with probably the best re-telling of the story (at least the story as originally presented by the Commission) that I have ever seen. It then addresses many of the most important claims which have been made over the years to challenge the conclusions of the Commission. Bugliosi's claim that he presents each conspiracy theory in the way the people who believe it would present it themselves, prior to debunking each one, is probably not quite literally true. He allows perhaps a bit too much of his scorn to show through at times, although it must be said show more that many of the conspiracy crowd scarcely deserve more. But he does in fact have enough respect for the critics of the Commission to address their charges directly and exhaustively. Although this approach has been used in the past, for example by Gerald Posner in his book Case Closed, there is no other book out there that comes close to this one. Bugliosi's mastery of the details of the case is a marvel. This is truly a useful service.

This book is not just for people who accept the official version of the story. A good majority of the people who dig deep into the assassination literature seem to be conspiracy people. This is probably because if a person believes the Warren Commission's story, there is unlikely to be same motivation to search for the true solution to the puzzle. (I began my own study of the subject years ago, harboring dark suspicions about LBJ. Now I think it was probably just Oswald himself, although Sylvia Odio's testimony to the Commission does raise at least the possibility of conspiracy with some Cubans. Bugliosi's treatment of this, probably the most difficult conspiracy theory to explain away, is worth the price of admission all by itself.) This book should be required reading for all conspiracy theorists, because it challenges their views. If they cannot respond to Bugliosi's arguments, they may, if they are honest, have to modify their views. Or simply dismiss the work of the Warren Commission as just a big pack of lies which is to be avoided because it'll only confuse you. (Lots of people explicitly say that you should not read the Report. They also say you shouldn't read this book. Whatever.)

Even now, over half a century later, the truth about the death of JFK does matter. Perhaps no one person knows more about the case than Bugliosi. No matter what your opinion about it is, you can learn something here. show less

Hard to argue with how good this is, and what an achievement – the work of one man over 20 years, covering as much of the goings on surrounding the assassination as can feasibly be fit in one book. The case against Oswald is set out conclusively, and by the end of it there’s no real doubt as to what happened. The section discussing the conspiracy theories is often good fun and a slightly scary insight into the crazy things people will actually believe, as well as the limp, ridiculous ideas people will accept if it suits their dislike of government or whatever else. It’s enjoyable to read the idea that someone as pig-headed and unreliable as Oswald was useful to anyone as a hitman or a patsy, or that the actually-mentally-ill Jack show more Ruby would be trusted to so much as buy a pint of milk for the mob, given the complete lack of respect they deserve. Perhaps the best bit in this vein is the 100-or-so page chapter pointing out the endless lies in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK – Bugliosi apologies for even discussing the film, as it lessens the quality of his book to engage with such tripe, but accepts it is necessary given the film’s popularity – and all its self-contradictory, invented guff.

The book has an unexpected strength too in its many digressions – on the history of the mob in the USA, the way in which bullet fragments can be identified and linked to a particular rifle etc – which give a wide variety of information on subjects I, at least, would never take time to read about otherwise. show less

Wow, this is one heavy book. Physically, I mean. The first chapter is 300-odd pages of a time-line for the day of the assassination and the subsequent three days. I'm both amazed at the depth of coverage and fascinated with his telling of events.

The next few chapters deal with aspects of the evidence, and I was particularly impressed with his coverage of the issues associated with JFK's autopsy. His conclusions are rational, and h's not afraid to call out conspiracy theorists when they misuse the evidence.

I've been impressed with the writing so far. I thought that I'd either get bogged down in the details or that the writing would suffer, but so far neither has happened. It's still a very big book, but I'm recommending it to others.

This book is basically minute by minute telling of the assassination of Kennedy. It had a heavy goal of showing how ridiculously unfounded conspiracy theories are. Toward the end it got a bit tedious, but it did as it promised.

4353. Reclaiming History The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, by Vincent Bugliosi (read 24 Aug 2007) This book has 1512 pages of text, a 22-page bibliography, and an index of 69 pages as well as 978 pages of endnotes on a CD-ROM and 170 pages of source notes, also on the CD-ROM. It is an awesomely detailed account of the events in Texas on 22 Nov 1963 and everything related thereto. There is no doubt that Bugliosi has done a great job and since I have been convinced ever since I read Case Closed by Posner on 31 Dec 1993 that Oswald was the murderer and that there was no conspiracy, this book confirmed my beliefs. I also found the book very funny, frequently laughing out loud when Bugliosi related some of the far-out things show more the conspiracy advocates assert happened. Anyone who wants to know what happened in relation to Kennedy's assassination should read this book. The time it takes to read it is time well spent. show less

First of all, you gotta love a book that weighs this much! This is truly exhaustive in every sense of the word. On the plus side, there is almost no aspect of the Kennedy assassination that is not addressed in this book. On the minus side, the author does indulge in quite a bit of sarcastic commenting on the writing and research of others.

This is definitely a must-have if you're interested this subject at all. Just do some strength training before you go to the bookstore because this is one huge book!