Choice Magazine Names UA Historian’s Work on JFK One of Year’s ‘Outstanding Academic Titles’

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Choice magazine’s newest issue names a book authored by Dr. Howard Jones, research professor of history at The University of Alabama, one of its “Outstanding Academic Titles” of 2003.

Jones’ book, “Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK Prolonged the Vietnam War” (Oxford University Press) is listed in the January issue as among the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice. The magazine is a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

According to the publication’s web site, only 10 percent of the approximate 6,600 works reviewed in Choice each year receive the designation. Choice editors base their selections on the reviewer’s evaluation of the work, the editor’s knowledge of the field, and the reviewer’s record, the site states.

Criteria for selection include: overall excellence in presentation and scholarship, importance relative to other literature in the field, distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic form, originality or uniqueness of treatment, value to undergraduate students, and importance in building undergraduate library collections.

In “Death of a Generation,” Jones reveals that John F. Kennedy was on the verge of implementing a withdrawal plan that would have spared the lives of 58,000 Americans and countless Vietnamese. Had Kennedy lived, Jones argues, all those lost souls’ children and grandchildren would be alive today.

In its November 2003 review, Choice called Jones’ book “exhaustively detailed” and the “culmination” of new works arguing that Kennedy intended to de-escalate America’s involvement in Vietnam.

“It is foolish to call any work about the Vietnam War definitive, but Jones does effect a shift in the balance of the argument and leaves the ball squarely in the court of those on the other side of the debate,” the review stated. “This is an important, persuasive book about a significant topic.”

Jones was a featured speaker at the recent regional conference of the Coalition on Political Assassinations in Dallas. He spoke from the “Grassy Knoll” on Nov. 22, the 40th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.

Jones joined UA’s history department, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, in 1974. He authored “Mutiny on the Amistad,” a 1987 book which received wide critical acclaim. He was a special consultant on Steven Spielberg’s movie production of “Amistad.”

The College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state, with approximately 5,500 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students. The College has received national recognition for academic excellence, and the College’s students have been selected for many of the nation’s top academic honors, including 13 Rhodes Scholarships, 14 Goldwater Scholarships, seven Truman Scholarships, and 15 memberships on USA Today’s Academic All-American teams.