By Ray E. Boomhower; Indiana University Press; $21.95

Meticulous research presented as straightforward scholarship takes a reader through a roller coaster time in the U.S. generally and Indiana specifically. Bobby Kennedy was speaking at Ball State when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. Despite warnings not to go to Indianapolis, Kennedy proceeded directly to a park at 17th and Broadway where a mostly African-American crowd was awaiting his scheduled arrival. Kennedy’s impromptu words of quiet compassion and his call for healing continue to resonate with people who say they hold an “emotional memory” from 40 years ago. The citizens of Indianapolis, unlike those of several other cities, did not riot. The book touches on the full scope of the campaign, including the other contenders: Indiana Gov. Roger D. Branigan, Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. Well worth reading, with follow-up conversations.