It’s October 19th. This day in 1974, Kanawha County, West Virginia is embroiled in an increasingly violent battle over a slate of new textbooks being added to the local school curriculum. Over the course of a few weeks, there would be shootings, bombings, conspiracies to attack school buses full of children, and more.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the textbook battle got so out of control, what it says about the rise of backlash politics, and echoes to today’s violent political discourse.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia

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The Textbook Wars Spiral Out of Control (1974)