Leading up to today’s 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, dozens more books have been written on the killing itself as well as his legacy. This adds to the whole bookstore’s worth of titles already out there. Incredibly, there are still new and worthwhile takes to be found. Dallas 1963 is a case in point. Tackling neither the assassination theories that have sprouted hydra-like in the last half-century or the Jackie-burnished legend of Camelot, it focuses on one thing only: the virulent right-wing hatred waiting for JFK that day in Dallas.

My review of Dallas 1963 ran in today’s Barnes & Noble Review; here’s part:

A well-spoken Democratic president whose background and ethnicity raised reactionary suspicions. A new government health care plan denounced as anti-American social engineering. Accusations of treason and talk of insurrection. Militia-like groups recruiting members. A powerful media machine waging all-out warfare on the president and his allies. In Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis’s electric, frightening urban political history Dallas 1963, the authors don’t need to draw parallels between the conservative panic that erupted during John F. Kennedy’s presidency and the fears currently inflaming the far right wing. It’s all right there on the page…

There’s an excerpt from Dallas 1963 at NPR here.