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Muslims:
Faith and Nation
Immigrants:
A new identity
Workers:
Shifts on the job
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A Monitor Guide to Books of September 11
A year after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the publishing industry has produced more than 300 related books. No single event has ever generated so many, so quickly.
THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN
by Jim DeFede
Regan, $23.95
This book tells the unique story of what occurred in Gander, Newfoundland, on Sept. 11. Thirty-eight airplanes carrying 6,595 travelers were diverted to this Canadian island city marked by hardiness, desolation, and high unemployment. From now on, Gander will be associated with the spirit of welcome and brotherhood, seen in its demonstration of true humanity. As the waylaid "plane people" received news of the terrorist attacks in the United States, an immediate outpouring of support from unsuspecting hosts welcomed these strangers into their homes. They donated carloads of food and supplies, comforted them, and went to extraordinary efforts to meet individual needs. In this journalistic narrative, compiled from 180 interviews, readers follow these stranded travelers – a family who has just brought a newly adopted daughter from Kazakhstan, Moldovan refugees about to make the US their home, a top executive of a fashion house, an intelligence agent, and others – as they place their pushpins, representing over 40 countries, on a map in a makeshift encampment at the local school. Despite the circumstances, this is a warm account of how these travelers became companions, some even becoming friends and planning reunions at Gander in the future. (244 pp.) By Leigh Montgomery
UNDERSTANDING SEPTEMBER 11: ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ATTACKS ON AMERICA
by Mitch Frank
Penguin Putnam, $16.99
If a young student asks for help on a history-class project about the events of Sept. 11, keep this short volume handy. It frames terrorism in broader world issues, explains who Osama bin Laden is and how he has successfully inspired his followers to use violence against Americans. The author smoothly breaks down a complicated discussion of differing religious views among believers of Islam, the history of terror as a political tool, and the negative impact American culture has had on developing nations. Across the bottom of each page marches a Sept. 11 timeline that discreetly unfolds the day's horrific events. Written by a Time magazine reporter who heard the impact of the first attack on the World Trade Center from his Brooklyn Heights apartment, the introduction shows a journalist in action: "I sat in amazement for five minutes before I remembered ... it was my job to go out there and find out what happened." The book also has a useful glossary of Middle Eastern terms like Al Qaeda, burqa, and Islamism. Of course, such brevity runs the risk of oversimplification, but it will whet the appetite of any young scholar. (160 pp.) Ages 10 and up. By Kendra Nordin
SEPTEMBER 11: AN ORAL HISTORY
by Dean E. Murphy
Doubleday, $22.95
Thirty-seven stories of narrow escape from the Twin Towers, the streets around the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon serve to remind readers of all the people who did not survive on Sept. 11. While all these accounts share the same images of fire, black smoke, and death, they differ from one another eerily. Murphy, a New York Times reporter, tells some of these stories as the media have portrayed them – heroes helping others survive. But other accounts he offers describe chaos, selfishness, and breakdowns. While the idea of reading about survivors sounds uplifting, their stories of that day only serve to remind us of how many did not make it out of the buildings and the agony they experienced in their last moments. Reading the details of this horror inspires an uncomfortable voyeuristic feeling. Many of the accounts are far more gruesome than the live television coverage. The story of a woman who survived for hours after a 1,000-foot fall onto the pavement is typically haunting and tragic. This is a book for the history shelves – a reminder for the years to come. But for now, the memories may be too fresh to be relived. (224 pp.) By Mary Kuhl
A NEW WORLD TRADE CENTER
by Max Protetch
Regan Books, $29.95
Only two weeks after Sept. 11, Protetch was organizing an exhibition at his art gallery in Manhattan. Viewing architectural possibilities for the World Trade Center site, he felt, would be cathartic for the public and a way to help ensure what was built would be a "lasting monument to human creativity and resilience." He invited 125 architects from around the world to submit designs, including big names like Zaha Hadid and Michael Graves. The designs reproduced here, from the 60 who accepted, span the spectrum of opinion on the symbolic towers. A few architects vocalized their dislike of the "flat-topped extrusions," some wanted the site to remain a memorial, but most felt that returning it to a bustling part of the metropolis would be a greater tribute to the dead. Each illustration is accompanied by the architect's explanation of the concept. They range from simple, but subtle copies of the towers to total flights of fancy. Will Alsop suggests building towers twice the height of the originals and leaving one empty as an aviary. Samuel Mockbee wants a pit 911 feet deep beside the new taller towers with a memorial reflecting pool at its bottom. The designs overall have a futuristic feel – many look as if they might not survive a strong rainstorm. But the boldness of vision is invigorating. (160 pp.) By Susan Llewelyn Leach
HEART OF A SOLDIER
by James B. Stewart
Simon & Schuster, $24
"Heart of a Soldier" is a book framed by war. Rick Rescorla led the evacuation of Morgan Stanley's 2,700 employees at the World Trade Center but died when he stayed to look for others. He showed the same steely calm commanding troops in Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley, a battle made famous in the book, "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young." Born in a working-class English village as World War II began, Rescorla served as a British soldier and a colonial police officer as Africa descended into violence. In his last command decades later, he headed security at Morgan Stanley, chillingly predicting truck or plane attacks against the twin towers. Pulitzer Prize-winner Stewart also weaves in lighter details about Rescorla, a man who quoted Kipling in foxholes and spontaneously danced on sidewalks. There's a touching buddy story about his four decade-long friendship with fellow soldier, Dan Hill. And a love story of how Rescorla only recently found a soulmate, Susan Greer, while running barefoot in a New Jersey suburb. By the end of this beautiful and moving book, it's hard to imagine Rescorla doing anything else but staying behind to help others. You'll just wish his adventure through life didn't have to end so soon. (336 pp.) By Seth Stern
INSIDE 9-11
by Der Spiegel Magazine
St. Martin's Press, $24.95
Deploying uncommonly vivid and balanced prose, the writers of "Inside 9-11" present a sprawling portrait of Sept. 11 with crystalline clarity. This collection of micro-events – individual moments of heroism and terror, the day-to-day actions of the hijackers and scores of different voices – adds up to a broad but detailed account of a terrifying event. Hauntingly, the voices of the living and those now missing after Sept. 11, mingle freely within the book's pages. The most poignant moments are plucked from phone calls made by those who perished in the attacks. Although the book is written by the staff of Der Spiegel magazine, it is far more than an anthology of articles. Its material is seamlessly blended and carefully organized. Featuring an appendix with clear, useful timelines, and an excerpt from the jihad manual that the hijackers consulted for guidance, "Inside 9-11" provides readers with the raw material of history. If the book suffers from anything, it's a lack of clear sources, qualifiers, and "maybes." But if you're willing to take the book's sober, gripping account at face value, it's a valuable resource for gaining a better understanding of one of modern history's turning points. (320 pp.) By James Norton
THE FALLOUT
by Juan González
New Press, $20
When the World Trade Center collapsed on Sept. 11, hundreds of tons of asbestos, lead, mercury, and plastic products were pulverized. The Environmental Protection Agency and other officials quickly assured New Yorkers that the air was safe, but both internal and external reports later cast doubt on those claims. In this compact, alarming exposé, New York Daily News reporter Juan González documents with meticulous detail the misleading statements and sometimes outright lies of environmental officials – tarnishing, among others, the reputations of EPA head Christie Whitman and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. González casts a wide net of blame and is at times both accusatory and alarmist. He backs up his claims with detailed reporting, however, and it's hard to doubt that a "massive toxic deception," as he calls it, did indeed take place. He explains the various particles released along with the health problems they can cause, and sharply criticizes the lack of protection given to rescue workers and downtown residents. This book is not for the queasy, and readers should be prepared for detailed scientific and medical writing. But if you're interested in one of the least-discussed repercussions of last September's tragedy, it makes for a remarkably pithy synthesis. (150 pp.) By Amanda Paulson
SEPTEMBER 11: HISTORICAL, THEOLOGICAL, and SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES
by Ian Markham
Oneworld, $25.95
Written by faculty members of Hartford Seminary, this compelling collection of essays establishes a context for some of the hardest questions provoked by the Sept. 11 attacks: Where was God that day? How could this have happened? Why do they hate us? What would a moral response entail? With its Institute for Religion Research and Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, the seminary is in an excellent position to provide a thoughtful analysis of the events, their causes, and consequences. And these resources have been drawn on well. Editors Ian Markham, a Christian, and Ibrahim M. Abu-rabi, a Palestinian Muslim, have selected representative views from a broad range of disciplines and viewpoints. The 12 essays are skillfully woven into a tapestry of the most complex issues stemming from the attacks, making this collection a valuable resource for anyone trying to discern the deeper implications for mankind. The interpretive approach of these scholar-authors to the subject matter adds dimension and perspective sorely lacking in general public discourse. While the writers do not promise answers, the essays skillfully establish context and provide a foundation for further exploration. (320 pp.) By Steven Savides
THE CELL
by John Miller and Michael Stone
Hyperion, $24.95
In the days following the aftermath of Sept. 11, a horrifying realization must have crossed the minds of investigators: Many of the hijackers had been known to various branches of US law enforcement, a few raising serious concerns about their plans. In the months after the attacks, further revelations suggested the disaster needn't have occurred had someone simply connected the dots. Miller and Stone suggest that the events of Sept. 11 belong to a chain that stretches back to the 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City. His killing reinforced the perception that American law enforcement wasn't ready to deal with terrorism, a belief made evident with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the successive attacks on two US embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. With each success, Miller and Stone say, the confidence of Al Qaeda grew until it culminated in Sept. 11. The story that Miller, one of the few Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, and Stone tell is at best disconcerting. And it likely isn't the final word of who knew what and when, given that we're still learning details of the days leading up to the terrorist attacks. Despite that, Miller's and Stone's dogged pursuit of the story is a worthwhile read if only for the story of what we do know now. (304 pp.) By Steven Martinovich
A NATION CHALLENGED
by The New York Times
Callaway Editions, $34.95
It should come as no surprise that this is among the very best of the dozens of photography books now available on the World Trade Center disaster. Howell Raines, executive editor of The New York Times, writes in the introduction, "It happened in our city. It was our story." On Sept. 11, the Times immediately mobilized its staff to a level that approached the days of World War II. Within a week it had added a special daily section devoted to the photographs, graphics, and words they were producing. "A Nation Challenged" continued for more than three months and was recognized with six Pulitzer Prizes. Although most of the material in this book comes from that section, its presentation here looks nothing like the newspaper. Only the best 250 photos are included – none are redundant. Glossy paper, rather than newsprint, preserves the great detail in these images. And more than 30 of the photographs are reproduced at maximum size over two facing pages – much larger than when originally printed. The presentation is chronological and inviting. Individual subjects – ground zero, rescue workers, world reaction, the Taliban, and refugees – are each illustrated with two to six photographs and 100 words of text. Six of the Times's outstanding informational graphics and even some of its front pages are also reproduced. (240 pp.) By Tom Toth
110 STORIES
by Ulrich Baer
New York University Press, $22.95
In the slew of Sept. 11 books being released this summer, "110 Stories" may be an anomaly. Composed of two- or three-page poems, short stories, and dramatic prose, it turns literary – rather than documentary – eyes on the terrorist attacks. "In its ways of incessantly building and transforming a world, literature helped me confront reality without promising wholeness or denying absence, shock, and loss," writes Ulrich Baer, the book's editor, in the introduction. So he put out a call to New York's poets and novelists – Paul Auster, Peter Carey, A.M. Homes, and Susan Wheeler among many others – asking for their responses to the tragedy. The guidelines were loose; some of the selections are related only peripherally, if at all, to Sept. 11. A few of the stories may have been better left as personal exorcisms rather than published. But others achieve remarkable poignancy in the short space they are allowed. They don't try for universality, but simply offer slivers of response: a writer's meeting with a neighbor, who exhorts him to tell her daughter's story; the origin of the black-on-black New Yorker magazine cover; the death of nostalgia. As a kaleidoscope of images, thoughts, impressions, and gut responses, the collection begins to achieve Baer's goal: "finding meaning in – and beyond – the silent, howling void." (368 pp.) By Amanda Paulson
OUT OF THE BLUE
by Richard Bernstein
Henry Holt & Co., $25
Howell Raines, executive editor of The New York Times, writes in this book's introduction, "Sometimes tragedy must be confronted directly, for it is an indelible part of the human experience." Indeed, author Richard Bernstein, 20-year veteran reporter of the Times, opens the book with a contemplative look at the horrifying first few moments following the attacks in New York on Sept. 11. From there, Bernstein takes us back to 1979, to a modest storefront office in Peshawar, Pakistan, where a charismatic religious scholar named Abdullah Azzam first began recruiting volunteers for a new Islamic army. It is here, Bernstein says, that many of the men who would eventually play a role in the Sept.11 attacks (including Osama bin Laden) first joined the holy war that was ultimately directed at America. Clearly distinguishing between fact and informed guesses, Bernstein provides a comprehensive, engaging narrative of Sept. 11, the events that led up to the tragedy, and its aftermath. Throughout the book, he compares and contrasts the lives of the terrorists with the lives of some of the Sept. 11 victims, and provides striking glimpses into the unimaginable human details of the tragedy. (304 pp.) By Christian Scripter
AMONG THE HEROES
by Jere Longman
HarperCollins, $24.95
The story of United Flight 93 has a special resonance in a day full of terrible and heroic deeds. The flight crashed in a field near Shankesville, Pa., killing all aboard. However, the passengers' uprising against the hijackers saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives in Washington, D.C. "Among the Heroes" depicts the hijacking of Flight 93, moving from the morning of Sept. 11, when the passengers depart for the airport, to a December memorial at the crash site. New York Times reporter Jere Longman conducted hundreds of interviews with the families, friends, and colleagues of the passengers and crew on the flight. What emerges from these interviews is a sense of the love between the passengers and their families and friends, and the strength displayed by those on the plane and on the ground during the ordeal. The final phone calls from the plane are simply heart wrenching. Longman also pieces together what is known about the hijackers into a narrative of frightening determination, focusing on pilot Ziad Jarrah. By the conclusion of the book, the reader has a sense of knowing everyone on the plane, and to a greater or lesser extent shares in the love and the sorrow. (304 pp.) By Tim Rauschenberger
WAR OF WORDS
by Sandra Silberstein
Routledge, $25
Arguing that "nations are not brought rhetorically to war in a single speech," English professor Sandra Silberstein tunes her linguistic ear to the words used by politicians, eyewitnesses, and the media following the Sept. 11 attacks. She helps her readers hear the turns of phrase and conflation of terms that helped vilify enemies, unify the nation, and give extraordinary powers to the president. For example, Silberstein reads George Bush's visit to the National Cathedral on Sept. 14 as a "coronation of sorts" for a president not fully legitimated by a contentious election. At the cathedral, religious leaders spoke of the need to resist "evil," and called blessings upon the commander and pastor in chief, President Bush. Silberstein highlights how ABC anchor Peter Jennings helped to join the military and religious themes that day when he said, "The US Army Orchestra, organized in the 1950s to meet requirements such as this – great national occasions, great state occasions in Washington, when music as we hear there in the playing of 'America the Beautiful' and 'God Bless America,' are so essential to occasions such as this." Unfortunately, the insights don't go much deeper in this overly thin treatise that shows signs of hasty production and editing. (224 pp.) By Ben Arnoldy
WHAT WE SAW
by Dan Rather
Simon & Schuster, $29.95
This book offers something that others about Sept. 11 will not: a DVD with footage of CBS News coverage. It's either a selling point or a reason to stay away, depending on how raw your emotions about 9/11 are. The book portion of "What We Saw" is made up of "remembrances," as Dan Rather calls them – reports and excerpts from CBS broadcasts and print outlets like The New York Times and Time. A few of the pieces offer details that the casual reader might have missed. One Wall Street Journal article describes how the command centers of American and United airlines reacted to the hijackings. It provides a glimpse of their inner workings – how closely they track their planes, and how they deal with emergencies. Another compelling piece is by a fireman's widow, who recalls knowing that her husband had died when the South Tower fell because she felt the cord that connected their hearts had been severed. While the book is a thoughtful reminder, it would have been helpful to have the photos captioned, given that they are also part of this very visual story. The DVD is well done, but it's difficult not to relive the emotions of that day when watching it, especially seeing people jump to their deaths. (144 pp.) By Kim Campbell
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