[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

symbolized – what they meant – to their publics.” 3 Greenberg wrote that he sometimes
describes his book as a “’cultural history’ of Nixon” because “the meanings of a figure as
rich and controversial as Nixon are found not just in high politics but also in the
culture.” 4
The results of Gallup opinion polls over the past 40 years will show how the
American people largely have embraced the popular discourses of conspiracy and have
rejected the official version of Oswald as the lone gunman. The Gallup polling
organization has compiled years of polling data since the assassination. According to this
data, a majority of Americans believe Oswald was part of a conspiracy, but given the
many different theories, Americans are divided over who is ultimately responsible. 5
From the day of the assassination, with news bulletins broadcast around the
world, the popular media has shaped the public’s perceptions of the murder of John F.
Kennedy. This has continued to the present, with the examinations of the assassination
done largely by the government, journalists, literary figures, and film directors rather than
historians. Historian Max Holland, in his essay “After Thirty Years: Making Sense of the
Assassination,” published in 1994, points out that “Very few of the more than 450 books
and tens of thousands of articles that compose the vast assassination literature published
since 1964 have been written by historians...The assassination is treated [by historians] as
3
David Greenberg, Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image, (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2003), xi.
4
Greenberg, xii.
5
While a majority of Americans are convinced there was a conspiracy, younger people are more likely to
believe that Oswald did not act alone. Most Americans have long ago concluded that it is not paranoid to
believe Oswald was part of a conspiracy, but the many versions of Oswald’s life have split the public over
who ultimately was responsible for the assassination and manipulated Oswald as a patsy.
6