Columbine
On April 20, 1999, millions of people watched in horror as gunfire erupted at an otherwise ordinary high school in suburban Colorado.
In the hours and days that followed, headlines swirled with shocking stories — many of which were later proven to be unfounded. Yet the corrections would never recapture media attention, and significant untruths about the mass murder in Columbine have persisted in popular knowledge to this day.
Dave Cullen — one of the first reporters to arrive at the scene on that fateful day — spent the next decade investigating conflicting accounts, interviewing experts and witnesses, and examining all evidence to compile his exhaustive book Columbine. With a measured but compassionate voice, Cullen examines every angle of the event, dispelling myths and illuminating the contrasting personalities and motives of the two shooters.
Quote:
“Much of the country was watching the standoff unfold. None of the earlier school shootings had been televised; few American tragedies had. The Columbine situation played out slowly, with the cameras rolling. Or at least it appeared that way: the cameras offered the illusion we were witnessing the event. But the cameras had arrived too late. Eric and Dylan had retreated inside after five minutes. The cameras missed the outside murders and could not follow Eric and Dylan inside. The fundamental experience for most of America was almost witnessing mass murder. It was the panic and frustration of not knowing, the mounting terror of horror withheld, just out of view. We would learn the truth about Columbine, but we would not learn it today.”
Author:
Dave Cullen is an American a journalist and the author of Columbine and Parkland. He has written for many publications, including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Guardian, The Washington Post, and Slate.
Published: 2009
Length: 417 pages
Set in: Columbine, Colorado, U.S.