Biting the Elephant

About the Book

Somewhere along the course of my background reading for the style and format of this book, I came across an expression that caught my fancy as I considered the complexity of working with the writings of authors Gerald Posner, Arlen Specter, Kenneth Rahn, Max Holland, and Vincent Bugliosi. And somewhere else along that forgotten way I came across an expression I remember as being an African proverb: “We don’t eat the elephant in one big bite; we eat the elephant bite by bite!” Indeed, I don’t know whether I read that somewhere or whether I dreamed about something harmlessly apocryphal as a chant of the ants. What I do know is that several times over two years or so my mind has wandered in unsuccessful searches for format and title of a book based upon the writings of those prominent writers exploring the JFK assassination. Personally committed to writing targeted for future historians, I slowly came to realize my inability to write a single volume qualitative analysis of the major work of those prominent contributors to the literature of the John F. Kennedy assassination. So my first major decision was one of establishing a scope for this book. In the happening, I chose for major attention the work of Vincent Bugliosi, primarily because he himself had given considerable attention to key ideas developed by Posner, Specter, Rahn and Holland. Inasmuch as I had published in 2003 a book about Arlen Specter’s Single-Bullet Theory, he was a logical choice for me to sidestep in this writing. As for Max Holland, I had long awaited the appearance of his book for which he had been awarded a prestigious prize as a work in progress in 2001. With considerable reluctance I abandoned his work from consideration in this venture of mine.

About the Author

Rodger A. Remington was born on November 30, 1929, in Marinette, Wisconsin, where he received his elementary and secondary education at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish School, then staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. He attended Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1951, and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1955. That education was interrupted by military service in the Army of the United States during 1951-1953 in the Korean Conflict. Subsequently he received the Master of Arts degree in history in 1961, and the Ph.D. degree in history in 1965 from Saint Louis University. Presently he is ranked as professor emeritus of history at Aquinas College since 1997, following thirty-four years of faculty service. This is his fourth print on demand book published on the John F. Kennedy assassination: The People v. The Warren Report: Suggestions for Historians (2001); The Warren Report: Evidence v. “Conclusions” (2003); and Falling Chips: A Deconstruction of the Single-Bullet Theory of the JFK Assassination (2005).