Last night, before I went to bed, I happened to be channel surfing and happened upon one of C-SPAN's BookTV programs. The featured author was Arnie Bernstein, a Chicago-based historian and author, speaking about his new book, Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing. I had heard the story some years ago, but was surprised to see that someone had written a book about it. Speaking as an historian (in training) myself, I find that one of the many delights of history is revisiting an old story with new eyes and bringing it to an audience who otherwise might not have known it.
The Bath School Disaster, as the tragedy is more commonly known, has largely been forgotten (except, of course, to the residents of Bath). When asked to name the worst school mass murders in American history, most of us would come up with - understandably so - Columbine or Virginia Tech. Yet the Bath School Disaster was not only "America's First School Bombing", but remains to this day the deadliest: 44 victims were killed and another 58 injured.
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