Dallas 1963 Summary

For summer reading, I chose a book called Dallas 1963 which provides an in depth look into the complex city of Dallas leading up to John F. Kennedy’s merciless murder. The book starts in 1960 and vividly describes the city and what was happening, along with the key players in Dallas throughout the years, up until that fateful November 22nd, 1963. Mr. Norman- you should adopt Dallas 1963 into the AP Language and Composition class curriculum because of the clear imagery by Minutaglio and Davis which paints a chilling picture of Dallas in that time period, and because of the historical information crucial for Americans to understand about the assassination of a United States President.
Literary devices, especially imagery, are difficult to incorporate

into nonfiction pieces, but Minutaglio and Davis remarkably use this device to describe key events that occurred within the book. When an important, yet controversial, political figure in Dallas, ex soldier Edwin A. Walker, is being stalked and almost assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, the reader experiences the scene from the gunman’s perspective, and it is depicted so well that the reader can feel the balmy Dallas night air in the moments leading up to the would-be assassination. In the lines: “Oswald squints into his telescopic sight, and Walker’s head fills the view. He looks so close now, and he’s sitting so still, that there’s no possible way to miss. Drawing a tight bead on Walker’s head, he pulls the trigger. An explosion hurtles through the night, a thunder that echoes to the alley, to the creek, to the church and surrounding houses,” (Minutaglio and Davis, pg. 213) it seems as if instead of a historical nonfiction book, it’s a suspense novel. Through intriguing diction and vivid description, authors Minutaglio and Davis portray Dallas flawlessly as the volatile city it used to be. This book would illustrate to the students of the AP English class that historical non fiction can still be riveting and interesting to read.
Furthermore, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was arguably one of the most outstanding people to ever hold the position of United States President. He averted a nuclear war by resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis and had a large hand in many advancements with civil rights, including forming the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. After all that and more, it’s hard to imagine that somebody would want harm to come his way. His assassination left his two young children fatherless and his wife without a husband, which can never be justified, but it’s important for people to at least see the reasons America’s great president was murdered. A mixture of intense hatred for communism, wanting to start a war instead of “appeasing” other nations like Cuba and the USSR, and slight insanity led Lee Harvey Oswald to commit this unspeakable act. Dallas 1963 gives insight into the minds of the major players of Dallas and explains the events leading up to John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which should be essential for all Americans to have background on in order to recognize the impact Kennedy had on the American people.
In conclusion, Dallas 1963 would be a propitious read to adopt into the AP English class. I read this book because it was a topic of interest to me, but even more, it exposed me to well written literature and provided background on an important subject. Dallas 1963 should be adopted into the AP English class because of the eloquent imagery used and the fundamental historical information administered throughout the book.