TwentySix Seconds, Alexandra Zapruder
TwentySix Seconds, Alexandra Zapruder
2 Rating(s)
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Twenty-Six Seconds
A Personal History of the Zapruder Film

Author: Alexandra Zapruder

Narrator: Alexandra Zapruder

Unabridged: 14 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 11/15/2016

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder's film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world.

Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he ran home to grab his video camera on November 22, 1963 that this single spontaneous decision would change his family's life for generations to come. Originally intended as a home movie of President Kennedy's motorcade, Zapruder's film of the JFK assassination is now shown in every American history class, included in Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit questions, and referenced in novels and films. It is the most famous example of citizen journalism, a precursor to the iconic images of our time, such as the Challenger explosion, the Rodney King beating, and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. But few know the complicated legacy of the film itself.

Now Abraham's granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, is ready to tell the complete story for the first time. With the help of the Zapruder family's exclusive records, memories, and documents, Zapruder tracks the film's torturous journey through history, all while American society undergoes its own transformation, and a new media-driven consumer culture challenges traditional ideas of privacy, ownership, journalism, and knowledge.

Part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative, Zapruder demonstrates how one man's unwitting moment in the spotlight shifted the way politics, culture, and media intersect, bringing about the larger social questions that define our age.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bruce on August 14, 2017

About twice as long as needed, this book digs deep into the family experience of the Zapruder film. By far the best part is the description of Abraham Zapruder and his fateful link to the Kennedy assassination. As the book wore on, it became apparent that Alexandra was defending her family's role as......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on April 18, 2017

SUMMARY "They killed him. They killed him." Abraham Zapruder, cried. He was the first to know of John F. Kennedy's death. He saw it through the zoom lens of his double 8mm video camera on that bright, sunny day at Dealey Plaza. The motorcade passed right in front of him, then he heard the gunfire. It......more

Goodreads review by SundayAtDusk on November 15, 2016

The longer I read the introduction chapter of this book, the more I feared being put to sleep by all the over-thinking and over-analysis. I eventually just stopped reading that chapter and went on to the next. While the rest of the book was not as mind-numbing as its introduction, I still would only......more

Goodreads review by Carin on February 05, 2017

I didn't have strong opinions about the Zapruder film or the Kennedy assassination before reading this book. and really, I still don't, although obviously that was a super-important event in American history and the film was an amazing capture of the moment before everyone had a camera all the time,......more

Goodreads review by James on December 23, 2016

How do you live through a national tragedy, when it happens just a few feet from you? How do you live through it, when you just filmed it at the best vantage point? How do you live through it, when you want to to do the right thing, and get a copy to the Secret Service, yet the press hounds you to buy......more

Quotes

"A fascinating and cautionary tale."—Wall Street Journal

"Zapruder is a gifted writer and storyteller who delicately unravels a minor mystery few people know or care about, but that she makes human, complex and quite interesting."—New York Times Book Review

"Making use of family and government archives, interviews, and her own memory, Alexandra offers a supple, tender portrait of a family lashed to history."—Boston Globe

"The fifty year saga of the most important witness to the JFK assassination-a home movie shot by Abraham Zapruder-is a high-stakes morality tale, suspenseful, thought-provoking, and at times nasty. Zapruder's embattled descendants defend their claim to the film, while researchers, conspiracy theorists, disapproving editorial writers and the federal government swirl around them, and millions of dollars hang in the balance."—John Berendt, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

"A first-rate work of biography and history, addressing the film and the family in all their complexity and character...absorbing, deeply researched."—USA Today

"Enlightening...an intelligent blend of memoir and cultural criticism that breaks fresh ground in the crowded field of JFK assassination studies."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A moving and enlightening account of the famous film."—Joyce Carol Oates, The Washington Post

"Riveting...offers up a complex and highly entertaining story of an assassination, a reel of film, and a Texas-based clan, which also draws in Dan Rather, Life magazine, Geraldo Rivera, the Warren Commission, a pile of money, and a whole lot more."—The National Book Review

"The odyssey of America's most famous amateur footage is recounted with skill and sensitivity....Alexandra is a fine storyteller... the story never lags...Alexandra Zapruder has written a book which transcends the film and the tragedy in Dallas."—Washington Independent Review of Books

"Riveting."—The Dallas Morning News

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