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Title details for Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson - Available

Sandy Hook

An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth

by Elizabeth Williamson
Rebecca Lowman
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Slate, "25 Best Crime Books, Podcasts, and Documentaries of All Time"
Vanity Fair’s “Books We Can't Stop Thinking About”
Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Longlist 2023
The Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022
Publishers Weekly Best Books 2022
Kirkus Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022
Slate Best Books 2022
Chicago Tribune Best Books 2022
Los Angeles Times Best Books 2022
Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson’s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists. 
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed twenty first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Ten years later, Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society.
 
One of the nation’s most devastating mass shootings, Sandy Hook was used to create destructive and painful myths. Driven by ideology or profit, or for no sound reason at all, some people insisted it never occurred, or was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing Americans’ firearms. They tormented the victims’ relatives online, accosted them on the street and at memorial events, accusing them of faking their loved ones’ murders. Some family members have been stalked and forced into hiding. A gun was fired into the home of one parent. 
Present at the creation of this terrible crusade was Alex Jones’s Infowars, a far-right outlet that aired noxious Sandy Hook theories to millions and raised money for the conspiracy theorists’ quest to “prove” the shooting didn’t happen. Enabled by Facebook, YouTube, and other social media companies’ failure to curb harmful content, the conspiracists’ questions grew into suspicion, suspicion grew into demands for more proof, and unanswered demands turned into rage. This pattern of denial and attack would come to characterize some Americans’ response to almost every major event, from mass shootings to the coronavirus pandemic to the 2020 presidential election, in which President Trump’s false claims of a rigged result prompted the January 6, 2021, assault on a bastion of democracy, the U.S. Capitol.
The Sandy Hook families, led by the father of the youngest victim, refused to accept this. Sandy Hook is the story of their battle to preserve their loved ones’ legacies even in the face of threats to their own lives. Through exhaustive reporting, narrative storytelling, and intimate portraits, Sandy Hook is the definitive book on one of the most shocking cultural ruptures of the internet era.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 8, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593344811
      • File size: 473181 KB
      • Duration: 16:25:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 1, 2022

      Narrator Rebecca Lowman (Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America) brings her cool, calm best to this timely audiobook about the shooting in Sandy Hook and the rise of conspiracy theories. The prologue, author's note, and epilogue read by New York Times features writer Williamson set the tone for Lowman to take over as she presents the results of hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and analysis of court records. The compelling topic is enhanced by Lowman's skilled performance. She emotes empathy for the victims and their families. Anger and disgust are reserved for those who spread lies and deceptions about the tragedy and the trolls who committed identity fraud or stalked survivors using social media. Her captivating delivery of facts and detailed information about the arrests and trials of conspiracy theorists Alex Jones, James Fetzer, James Tracy, and Wolfgang Halbig will make listeners cheer. Woven into the time line of the Sandy Hook aftermath is the expansion of conspiracy theorists and the havoc wreaked on the lives of others as they continue to spew "fake news" and lies for selfish reasons. VERDICT An outstanding treatise on the history and rise of conspiracy theories today.--Stephanie Bange

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 7, 2022
      New York Times reporter Williamson’s searing debut demonstrates that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had its roots in the deeply troubling efforts to claim that the 2012 massacre of 26 first-graders and staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax. After vividly depicting the horrors of Adam Lanza’s murderous rampage at Sandy Hook, Williamson delves into the vital part InfoWars radio show host Alex Jones played in spreading the conspiracy theory that nobody had actually died at the school. Encouraged by his conspiracy-mongering to pursue that wacko theory, members of his audience, already adamant in their distrust of government and the mainstream media, asserted that the tragedy was a stunt intended to bolster liberal efforts to pass gun control legislation and that the grieving parents were actually “crisis actors” faking even the existence of their dead kids. Williamson details how the pernicious reality-denying mentality Jones fostered in the Sandy Hook deniers spread to those Trump supporters who believed that he won the 2020 presidential election and who stormed the Capitol to “stop the steal.” Williamson’s years of research includes interviews with survivors of the school shooting, parents, and first responders, as well as analysis of court documents and other records. She has produced the definitive account of this dark chapter of American history. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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