Boston's Massacre, Documenting Own Dementia

The Truth about the Boston Massacre’s Role in America’s History Guest: Eric Hinderaker, PhD, Chair and Professor, Department of History, University of Utah, Author, "Boston's Massacre" A pivotal event in America’s path to independence happened in Boston in 1770, several years before the Revolutionary War actually broke out. But “The Boston Massacre,” as it’s known, was a galvanizing moment for the Patriot cause.  Right from the start, mythology arose around the events. What we know for certain is that British soldiers fired on a crowd in a street in Boston and that when it was over, five civilians were dead and eight British soldiers went on trial for murder. Major Revolutionary figures including Samuel Adams, John Adams and Paul Revere had a hand in shaping the way The Boston Massacre would be remembered. Historian Eric Hinderaker writes that “from the beginning, the symbolic power of the Boston Massacre transcended its details.” Hinderaker has a new book exploring that symbolic power from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Movement, to the Vietnam War protests, to today’s debate over police use of force.  Documenting Her Own Dementia Guest: Gerda Saunders, PhD, Author of “Memory’s Last Breath: Field Notes on My Dementia” When Gerda Saunders was diagnosed with microvascular disease five days before her 61st birthday, her neurologist told her she was already “dementing,” which can be a strange and terrifying way to put it. “Dementing,” as a verb, sends the message that it’s happening actively, meaning the worst is yet to come. To Gerda Saunders, it also carried a sense that she was complicit in the crime – she eats, she walks, she dements. In trying to understand the diagnosis, she started writing about it. She called them her “Field Notes on Dementia” and they are now part of her just-published memoir, “Memory’s Last Breath.”