Thinking Critically About the Kennedy Assassination

So much has been written about the JFK assassination and the numerous conspiracy theories about it. What remains undiagnosed is the motivation not of Oswald (or any other purported assassins) but of the conspiracy theorists themselves. What's in it for them? The short answer is power. The long answer is in this book, the most important contribution to the literature to come along in a generation. Michel Gagne is reflective and thoughtful in both his thinking and his writing . Michael Shermer, Ph.D. Publisher of Skeptic magazine, columnist for Scientific American, Presidential Fellow of Chapman University, USA, and author of Heavens on Earth , The Moral Arc, The Believing Brain, and Why People Believe Weird Things Michel Gagne is skeptical of JFK conspiracy theories, and he is also a teacher of logic. Thus he recognizes in conspiracy arguments fallacies that are not peculiar to the JFK case, but crop up in all sorts of debates. His volume is a cogent and incisive treatment of the whole assassination landscape, with particular attention to recent conspiracy arguments not dealt with in earlier volumes from people like Posner and Bugliosi . John McAdams, Ph.D. Formerly Professor of Political Science, Marquette University, USA, and author of JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think about Claims of Conspiracy Michel Gagne tackles the problem of conspiracism head on. He considers the many reasons why people believe in conspiracies. He systematically, critically, and successfully analyzes the most prominent interpretations of the assassination of JFK, the actors involved, and their respective motivations. Thinking Critically About the Kennedy Assassination offers a contemporary application of critical thinking to a controversial and hotly debated subject . Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D. Professor, School of Criminal Justice, University of Baltimore, USA