Love and War at Kent State
Jon Michael Miller
Dr. Jerry M. Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Kent State
University writes: "On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard
fired into a crowd of Kent State University students, killing four and
wounding nine. This action contributed to the first nationwide student
strike in higher education in the United States. 'Love and War at Kent
State' by Jon Michael Miller relives the two and one-half year period
from the Fall of 1967 to mid-May of 1970. Miller tells the story of the
protest as well as the shootings through the experiences of a passionate
love story of Jake Ernst, a graduate student in English, and Tasha Van
Sollis, a French teacher in the local high school. As Jake struggles
with personal relationships, he becomes involved in student protest
against the Vietnam War. As a teaching assistant, he becomes a faculty
marshal at various protests. He encounters the May 4 shootings in that
role. Miller has told a creative and important story of the protest
culture at Kent State. Readers of this novel will imagine themselves
walking on the Commons area thinking about protest and the Vietnam War,
and what these important events have meant to the United States."
