Endorsements
"This work deserves to be read."
—The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2008
"Praise From a Future Generation [is] a lucid, well-documented assessment of these citizen sleuths and their compulsive, all-out effort to re-open the case."
—The Dallas Morning News
"If Vincent Bugliosi thought his mammoth Reclaiming History would put an end to this debate, Kelin is determined to prove him wrong."
—Publishers Weekly, July 27, 2007
It has been a privilege to read it...a learning experience. [John Kelin has] filled in some important history for me about good people without whom the work that you, I, and other friends have been doing would be impossible. We are, knowingly or not, standing on their shoulders. [Kelin's] excellent book...will itself receive praise from a future generation.
—James W. Douglass, author of JFK and the Unspeakable, and Lightning East to West: Jesus, Gandhi, and the Nuclear Age.
"I thought [this] book would be a nice diversion ... it has been that and much, much more ... to begin with, the idea was inspired ... the execution of the idea is masterful ... kudos."
—Dr. Gerald McKnight, author of Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation, and Why
This is an ambitious and moving account. We are given a synthesis of the issues of evidence, the struggles of the critics to be heard, the obtuseness of the defenders of the Warren Report (most conspicuously the young assistant counsel Arlen Specter of Philadelphia, patriarch of the "single bullet" theory), the chronology of major turning points in the investigative history (most colorfully, Jim Garrison's saga), beautifully telling anecdotes -- all told, a mosaic of protest, interaction, conflict, irresolution, and partial redemption more compelling, and more disturbing, than anything else in our national history.
—H.C. Nash, author of Citizen's Arrest
Praise from a Future Generation fills a void in the literature on President Kennedy's assassination. It is the first book length study of the beginnings of the critical movement that eventually brought down the Warren Commission. Kelin shows us how a small band of average Americans, through relentless dedication, perseverance, and a tireless pursuit of truth, permanently altered the consciousness of a nation.
—James DiEugenio, author of Destiny Betrayed, co-editor of The Assassinations.
I have no doubt that serious historians and interested citizens of future generations will find Praise a vitally important source. By reading it, they will gain a much fuller understanding of the contributions of the first-generation critics...[the book] contributes in an important way to the history of one of the most shocking and significant events of twentieth-century America.
—Raymond J. Marcus, author of The Bastard Bullet.
Given my status as one of the few surviving original JFK assassination critics, I should offer comment on [this] book. John Kelin's years of arduous research enables the reader to eavesdrop on a tiny, intense community of earnest citizens in their self-motivated task of hunting for historical truth. Kelin precisely details how the critics sought answers to questions of who killed President Kennedy and why. In his fine account of this endeavor by the tiny band of researchers, he preserves that which would otherwise have been lost forever. For that, I believe current readers and future generations should be grateful.
—Vincent J. Salandria