Sandy Hook

Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Longlist 2023 The Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022 Publishers Weekly Best Books 2022 Kirkus Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022 Slate Best Books 2022 Chicago Tribune Best Books 2022 Los Angeles Times Best Books 2022 Based on hundreds of hours of research,interviewsand access to exclusive sources and materialsSandy Hook is Elizabeth WilliamsonΓÇÖs landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shootingthe work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselvesand the truth of their childrenΓÇÖs fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists. On December 142012a gunman killed twenty first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in NewtownConnecticut. Ten years laterSandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society. One of the nationΓÇÖs most devastating mass shootingsSandy Hook was used to create destructive and painful myths. Driven by ideology or profitor for no sound reason at allsome people insisted it never occurredor was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing AmericansΓÇÖ firearms. They tormented the victimsΓÇÖ relatives onlineaccosted them on the street and at memorial eventsaccusing them of faking their loved onesΓÇÖ murders. Some family members have been stalked and forced into hiding. A gun was fired into the home of one parent. Present at the creation of this terrible crusade was Alex JonesΓÇÖs Infowarsa far-right outlet that aired noxious Sandy Hook theories to millions and raised money for the conspiracy theoristsΓÇÖ quest to ΓÇ£proveΓÇ¥ the shooting didnΓÇÖt happen. Enabled by FacebookYouTubeand other social media companiesΓÇÖ failure to curb harmful contentthe conspiracistsΓÇÖ questions grew into suspicionsuspicion grew into demands for more proofand unanswered demands turned into rage. This pattern of denial and attack would come to characterize some AmericansΓÇÖ response to almost every major eventfrom mass shootings to the coronavirus pandemic to the 2020 presidential electionin which President TrumpΓÇÖs false claims of a rigged result prompted the January 62021assault on a bastion of democracythe U.S. Capitol. The Sandy Hook familiesled by the father of the youngest victimrefused to accept this. Sandy Hook is the story of their battle to preserve their loved onesΓÇÖ legacies even in the face of threats to their own lives. Through exhaustive reportingnarrative storytellingand intimate portraitsSandy Hook is the definitive book on one of the most shocking cultural ruptures of the internet era.