"American Tabloid"

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the book "American Tabloid," by James Ellroy. The paper shows how the book exploits widely held suspicions that the assassination of John F. Kennedy resulted from a criminal or political conspiracy. The paper examines Ellroy's explanation of the events that led up to the presidential "hit" and how this conflicts with the official version contained in the Warren report. In conclusion, the paper examines what this popular appeal of the "revisionist" explanation of the murder say about American's changing social imagery regarding government in the post Vietnam era.

From the Paper:

"The book is a chilling account of history that could have happened just that way, and it is much more believable in an age when the government has come to represent something not to be trusted. It is not hard to believe that Hoover knew all along and approved (Ellroy 540), because history has shown the man was obsessed with his job and his power. History has also shown the government covered up many other shady dealings, just as Nixon covered up Watergate and the Oval Office tape recordings, and eventually resigned, rather than face impeachment. And he was supposed to be the good guy! "Dick Nixon's a good man, and the entire Kennedy family is rotten down to the core" (Ellroy 307)."

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