Columbine by Dave Cullen
April 20th, 2009Title: Columbine
Author: Dave Cullen
Publisher: Twelve (2009)
Quickly…what do you know about the Columbine school shootings from 10 years ago? Here’s what I knew: The shooters snapped one day and went on a rampage; they were picked on a lot by the school jocks and, therefore, targeted them, their family lives were horrendous and they chose April 20th because of Hitler’s birthday. Is that about the same as your list? Well, if so…we were wrong, and this book proves it.
I have now been reviewing non-fiction books here for a little over a year. I have read a lot of really interesting books (and some really bad ones). This is the best book I have come across during that time. It’s that good. Today is the 10th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting and journalist Dave Cullen has finally released his research. Cullen has been working on a true, accurate history of the incident for the entire ten years…and it shows.
Columbine by Dave Cullen is an in depth look at what lead up to the shooting and a biography of the killers (Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold). But possibly more important is his rebuttal of many of the rumors and myths that surround the killings. Typically, a lot of inaccurate information came out right after the shootings. The media was grasping for information and, therefore, willing to accept pretty much anyone’s opinion. This rush to judgment has done a lot of damage to people trying to investigate the true psychological reasons behind the murders. This is why we have the misconceptions of what happened. So lets go through my list to see what really took place.
Harris and Klebold did not suddenly snap and go on a rampage. Eric Harris was a true, full blooded psychopath. About.com says a psychopath is:
incapable of feeling guilt, remorse or empathy for their actions. They are generally cunning, manipulative and know the difference between right and wrong but dismiss it as applying to them. They are incapable of normal emotions such as love, generally react without considering the consequences of their actions and show extreme egocentric and narcissistic behavior.
Psychopaths are charming and have an innate ability to convince everyone around them that they are OK…and if they do get caught misbehaving, that they are sorry. Harris was an extraordinarily good psychopath. About one year prior to the shootings they were arrested for theft…and that was the trigger to Harris’ breakdown. Through his personal journals you can watch him spiral out of control, but only on the inside. Never did he show what was happening to anyone else (except Klebold). This attack was carefully planned out for a long time. Klebold was more depressing and more of a loner, but he basically followed Harris.
Harris, being a highly functioning psychopath, was not a goth and was not picked on. In fact, he was semi-popular. Everyone seemed to know he was a little odd and could get aggressive…but he was not bullied. Harris didn’t want to target anyone specifically…he just wanted to kill everyone. He hated everyone and thought they deserved to die. The original plan was to set up a couple of bombs in the lunch room commons to go off when the most number of people were in the room (another proof that they did not snap: they calculated when the commons would be busiest). Fortunately the bombs did not go off, otherwise possibly more than 500 people would have been killed (and probably more because the boys would not have left their posts outside of the school). They then planned to wait outside at strategic points to fire on the students as they fled the building after the explosion. Harris just wanted destruction and death.
I feel sorry for the parents of the boys as I don’t think they caused the problems. Harris had pretty much everyone convinced he was a decent kid and Klebold liked his parents. It doesn’t appear they raised the kids in the type of manner that breeds violence. I also severely doubt that music and video games had anything to do with it. Actually, I think that would insult Harris…he would claim all responsibility and no influences.
Lastly, one of the more popular myths is that they chose April 20th to honor Adolf Hitler on his birthday. The truth is that the massacre was planned for April 19th, but they didn’t have all the ammunition. Harris chose April 19th because that was the same day as the Oklahoma City Bombings, and he wanted to honor McVeigh by killing ever more people. Of course, McVeigh chose April 19th because that was the day the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas ended in death.
The book goes into great detail into many more topics, like the terrible investigation job done by the local police…including a large cover up. They had come across Harris’ personal webpage some time before the attack. On that webpage he ranted over and over about how he hated people, wanted them all dead, and was going to do it himself. The information was not acted on and then hidden once the attacks took place.
I was a junior in high school when this happened and the rest of that school year was pretty intense. There was a lot of fear around that this type of thing could happen at my school. They were basically the same type of schools…over 2,000 students, a relatively wealthy school district, and high levels of performance. Naturally, there were some copycat type shootings around the country, but none (thankfully) taken to the same level as Columbine. As everyone was on high alert, there were a couple of scares at my high school…we had to quickly evacuate the school because of a suspected bomb…which ended up being a small package of napkins! I think the shootings affected all of us in America…not just those in school or with kids in school. I think it highlighted the fact that you can never really be sure of your safety…even in a “safe” place like your school.
I apologize for the super long review, but as I said before, this is a spectacularly written book and I recommend everyone to go to Amazon, B&N or your local library and read it. You will be heartbroken as you read this biography of death…but it is worth it in the end.
Rating: 1000 out of 5
—————————————-
Like what you see? Sign up for the RSS feed.
You might like these...
April 20th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Wow, that is a ringing endorsement for sure. And I love your rating.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:24 am
What a phenomenal review! One of my coworkers is reading this right now, and he’s saying pretty much the same thing. I feel kind of school shooting-ed out, thanks to Wally Lamb’s take on the whole thing in The Hour I First Believed, but I think I will have to read this one anyway. And soon.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I will absolutely be buying a copy of this book. I lived in Denver for a good many years and Columbine is part of the local consciousness, if you will. I bought a copy of Wally Lamb’s latest novel last year because it was supposed to cover Columbine (haven’t yet read it, which is typical of me).
Thanks for the heads up and a great review!
April 21st, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Great review! I am interested in this book as I was just listening to a review of it on npr yesterday. It prompted me to do some googling because of course I had never heard a lot of the actual facts about the shooting, just the myths that came out when it first happened.
Something about the way the two shooters are described reminds me of what Lucien Fox says in the new Batman movie about the Joker… “some people just want to watch the world burn.” It seems to be true of those two and trying to find any reason beside that will lead to futility.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
From your description it appears that every school administrator in America shold read that book…required reading.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:35 pm
[...] super kind folks over at Internet Review of Books posted my review of Columbine by Dave Cullen on their blog. I actually think the most interesting thing on that posting is a comment that came [...]
May 27th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Well I’m ridiculously late to this party, but just stumbled across this wonderful review. Thanks for taking the time with the book and the write-up.
Great comments, too. I appreciate you getting the word out on the book.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
BTW, I found this review via a post this week from A Reader’s Respite:
http://readersrespite.blogspot.com/2009/05/review-columbine.html
August 24th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Thanks for the feedback on my review. Like you, I was very impressed by the depth and passion of Mr. Cullen’s work. The fact that you were in high school at the time of the incident gives your piece an extra resonance. Hope you continue to sample my contributions to Open Letters Monthly.(also envious you got a nod from Dave Cullen himself)
January 6th, 2010 at 10:03 am
[...] Columbine by Dave Cullen – This is probably the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It is wonderfully written and was picked on a lot of “Best of 2009″ lists. None as important as mine of course! The Machine by Joe Posnanski – This was a fantastically written book about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. This is probably a somewhat limited market…but Posnanski is a fantastic writer. Easily the best sportswriter out there right now. Drunkard by Neil Steinberg – This was a very well written memoir of the struggle of an alcoholic. Very good read…though be prepared to be sad. [...]