September 11, 2001

Also a YouTube video.
From the catalog: "Through actual footage, interviews, and declassified documents, Michael Moore illustrates the connections President Bush has to the royal house of Saud of Saudia Arabia and the bin Laden's, how the president got elected on fraudulent circumstances and then proceeded to blunder through his duties while ignoring warnings of the looming betrayal by his foreign partners. When the treachery hits with the 9/11 attacks, Moore explains how Bush failed to take immediate action to defend the nation."

Also available on the Web.
From www.9-11commission.gov: "The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002, is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks."

From the Amazon.com book description: "When terrorists flew jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the social effects were as dramatic as the visual images. Individual lives, families, friendship networks, corporations, global financial flows, and politics were all transformed. Moving behind headlines, first impressions, political speeches, and soundbites, knowledge from the social sciences is a basic resource for understanding these changes—and also what has not changed. The social sciences fill in necessary background, provide contexts for interpretation, and offer vital analytic perspectives. They help us see deep roots to some parts of the current crisis and also the influence of social change. They show how religious and cultural factors intertwine with economic and security concerns. They help us make sense of the role of Islam, the impact on international relations, and the challenges for democratic societies. Understanding September 11 is written by many of today's foremost anthropologists, economists, historians, political scientists, and sociologists; by specialists on Islam, war, terrorism, and Central Asia. It offers the most complete account available, not just of terror and tragedy but of the challenges we face now and the issues we must understand to make informed choices about our future."

From the publisher: "The months since the World Trade Center bombing have seen a tidal wave of quick prognostications and breakneck analysis by instant experts on the payrolls of the major news stations. Yet it is increasingly clear that the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks marked a seismic shift in American life, and that the full reverberations of the events have yet to be felt. In Critical Views of September 11, the nation’s foremost thinkers offer the most informed and penetrating analysis of the long-term impact of the crisis of terrorism, sketching for the first time the unexpected world of the twenty-first century.

"Essays in the volume examine the impact of September 11 on international relations, democracy, warfare, global markets, immigration policy, and perceptions of Islam, among many other topics. For all of us who seek deeper understanding in troubling times, Critical Views of September 11 will provide the most complete roadmap yet available to a rapidly changing world."

From the author's website (www.philipshenon.com): "In a work of history that will make headlines, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon investigates the investigation of 9/11 and tells the inside story of the most significant federal commission since the Warren Commission.

"From the Commission's inception, Shenon covered its workings on a daily basis, developing sources at all levels of the investigation. Now, more than five years later, he has returned to those sources and uncovered important information which casts a new light on what the Commission discovered - and failed to discover.

"If a great reporter had been present throughout the workings of The Warren Commission, we might have a better understanding of the events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy. Philip Shenon's book on the 9/11 Commission serves as both an essential historical record and a fascinating inside account of how our government works at the highest and most secret levels."

From citeulike.org: "At first there were no words to describe the horror of September 11, only a national hush that expressed the sudden absence of so many innocent lives.

"Then the floodgates opened: eyewitness accounts, expert analyses, bitter denunciations, tributes to fallen heroes, patriotic exortations, eulogies, and spin. Almost immediately, the Bush Administration and the media launched an unprecendented rhetorical campaign aimed at manufacturing support for the 'War on Terror.'

"A fascinating glimpse into the full impact of 9/11 on America's psyche, War of Words takes a critical look at the strategic use of language to create a series of national transformations. A terrorist attack became an 'act of war,' requiring commensurate response. The President, until then the butt of national jokes, ascended to Commander in Chief, while the leader of the city we love to hate became 'America's mayor.' TV ads for cars and clothing featured flags and firemen, showing that consumerism is patriotism.

"With a keen ear for the hidden messages in our national stories, Sandra Silberstein unearths the dark side of this patriotic rhetoric, including the attacks on those who question U.S. policy and the denunciation of liberal intellectuals by the conservative American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

"Timely and penetrating, War of Words shows how the stories we told after the attacks fashioned a post-9/11 American identity and reinscribed our national beliefs."

From the publisher: "After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a general sense that the world was different—that nothing would ever be the same—settled upon a grieving nation; the events of that day were received as cataclysmic disruptions of an ordered world. Refuting this claim, David Simpson examines the complex and paradoxical character of American public discourse since that September morning, considering the ways the event has been aestheticized, exploited, and appropriated, while 'Ground Zero' remains the contested site of an effort at adequate commemoration.

"In 9/11, Simpson argues that elements of the conventional culture of mourning and remembrance—grieving the dead, summarizing their lives in obituaries, and erecting monuments in their memory—have been co-opted for political advantage. He also confronts those who labeled the event an 'apocalypse,' condemning their exploitation of 9/11 for the defense of torture and war.

"In four elegant chapters—two of which expand on essays originally published in the London Review of Books to great acclaim—Simpson analyzes the response to 9/11: the nationally syndicated “Portraits of Grief” obituaries in the New York Times; the debates over the rebuilding of the World Trade Center towers and the memorial design; the representation of American and Iraqi dead after the invasion of March 2003, along with the worldwide circulation of the Abu Ghraib torture photographs; and the urgent and largely ignored critique of homeland rhetoric from the domain of critical theory.

"Calling for a sustained cultural and theoretical analysis, 9/11 is the first book of its kind to consider the events of that tragic day with a perspective so firmly grounded in the humanities and so persuasive about the contribution they can make to our understanding of its consequences."

From goodreads.com: "September 11 marked the beginning of a new era--an age of terror in which counter-terrorism will be one of the highest priorities of national governments and international institutions. How we proceed in this new war depends in large measure on the answer to a prior question: what exactly happened here and why? In The Age of Terror, eight leading historians and policymakers address this question and examine the considerations and objectives of policy decisions in post-September 11 America. Co-published with the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization."