A review of Eric Hinderaker's new book "Boston's Massacre" highlights the shifting narrative of the events and their place in the national story, and the perpetually unanswered conflict between limits of authority and those of popular protest.
The fairly recent elevation of Crispus Attucks as a hero of the American Revolution obscures the complexity of his role in the Boston Massacre and illustrates the pressure for textbooks to conform to a triumphal American narrative rather than engaging with the complexity of the past.
The incident that became known as the Boston Massacre didn't have to happen, and didn't have to become a flashpoint for violence after. As political tensions break into violence today, it's worthwhile to think about Boston in 1770.
Professor of Africana Studies Kellie Carter Jackson speaks with WBUR on the relationship between violence and protest; a relationship which goes back to the Boston Massacre.
