The JFK Assassination: The human narratives behind one of history's most scrutinised events (454)

About this episode

The episode explores the human narratives surrounding the JFK assassination through the lens of personal stories and memory.

Dallas, 22 November 1963. The main event is supposed to be on the appropriately named Main Street. News footage shows office workers leaning out of windows, peering at the motorcade through a blizzard of ticker tape. On the sidewalks, the crowds are fifty deep, a wall of noise and celebration. Everyone thinks this is the place to be. Well, nearly everyone.... A few blocks away, in Dealey Plaza, the scene is different. There is no ticker tape here, and the crowds are thin. A dressmaker with vertigo films the action balanced on a concrete plinth. A man is opening an umbrella even though it isn’t raining, a construction worker will claim he was sent here by God and three mysterious tramps who will shortly be arrested. I spoke with Martin Fitzgerald, who has written a new book, The Umbrella Man and Other Stories. This is not a book about who killed John F. Kennedy or why he was assassinated. This is a book about memory, how we construct our shared history and what happens when your life is defined by a single, fleeting moment. It’s a celebration of human nature, of the joy of research and the freedom of an open mind. Above all, it reveals the stories of a group of real people who…

People in this episode

Host: Ian Sanders

Guest: Martin Fitzgerald

Topics covered

• JFK Assassination
• memory
• human narratives
• historical events
• shared history

Keywords

• JFK
• assassination
• Dallas
• memory
• historical narrative
• human nature
• Dealey Plaza

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Umbrella Man and Other Stories

Places: Dallas

More episodes of Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

• Cold War Football: A History in Ten Matches (460) · June 12, 2026 · 53 min
• CIA and MI6 Covert Action in Communist Albania at the Dawn of the Cold War (459) · June 5, 2026 · 1h 7m
• On the edge of war: A V-Force pilot during the Cuban Missile Crisis (458) · May 29, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Conscripted to a West German Nuclear Missile Unit (457) · May 22, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Cold War Disinformation Front Line (456) · May 15, 2026 · 54 min
• 30 Miles from the North Korean Border - A US Military Childhood (455) · May 8, 2026 · 47 min