CREATING AND FAILING THE 9/11 GENERATION

An academic examination of the effects of 9/11 on the generation who were children and adolescents at the time.

Through a wealth of research, consideration, and study, Warshauer, professor of history at Central Connecticut State University, delivers an in-depth investigation of the causes, effects, and viewpoints of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington. The text begins by describing the experience of living through 9/11 and introducing readers to the notion of “the 9/11 Generation”—a demographic, the author defines, somewhat arbitrarily, as being between 5 and 15 years old on the day in question—and the manner in which the attacks constituted a “social toxin” permeating this same generation. When one looks closely, the text suggests, there is a stark “before” and “after” September 2001, and it’s this work’s goal to define this “before” period in order to understand the “after” and its attendant effects, domestically and globally. Things get forensic from here; Warshauer provides a detailed timeline of the day itself, particularly the all-important 102 minutes—the time period between the first plane’s contact with the first tower and the moment that tower eventually fell—which many readers will find not only useful, but informative. (In the morass of coverage and analysis, the simple narrative points of the day are often lost.) But Warshauer goes further back, too, considering not only the “what,” but the “why.” The book describes the ways American policy, and its worldview writ large, had been so externally focused in the late 20th century—whether for arguably altruistic reasons or more sinister aims to consolidate power. In short, the U.S. was ripe to be challenged internally, which 9/11 demonstrated. Warshauer goes on to detail the aftermath, both as it regards the United States’ increased presence in the Middle East, as well as the machinery of capitalism that it has fed.

Much of this work’s historical context isn’t newly asserted. Most people understand that decades of rapacious American foreign policy are to blame for 9/11 rather than an alleged Muslim-led “hatred of freedom,” but the simplicity with which Warshauer details the chain of events is nevertheless helpful. Also illuminating is the chapter on the history, both personal and philosophical, of Osama bin Laden, which many readers will find to be new information. That fact on its own—the relative newness of any serious study of bin Laden that doesn’t characterize bin Laden as evil incarnate—helps underscore the reason for reading Warshauer’s work: We have much left to learn about 9/11. Warshauer argues that the generation in question, which he describes as “beset by chaos, a never-ending news cycle, and toxic social media that bombards them with seemingly unsolvable problems,” is a different generation than millennials, a point that isn’t particularly well supported. But even if this assertion feels off, the meat of this text is rich with important questions about social trauma, political responsibility, and the violence—justified or not—humans often inflict on one another.

A deeply researched, well-considered dive into the lasting effects of 9/11 and the global war on terror.