American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center

by William Langewiesche

Overview

Selected as one of the best books of 2002 by The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Sun-Times

Within days after September 11, 2001, William Langewiesche had secured unique, unrestricted, round-the-clock access to the World Trade Center site. American Ground is a tour of this intense, ephemeral world and those who improvised the recovery effort day by day, and in the process reinvented themselves, discovering unknown strengths and weaknesses. In all of its aspects—emotionalism, impulsiveness, opportunism, territoriality, resourcefulness, and fundamental, cacophonous democracy—Langewiesche reveals the unbuilding to be uniquely American and oddly inspiring, a portrait of resilience and ingenuity in the face of disaster.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865476752
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	09/11/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	395,455
Product dimensions:	5.64(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

William Langewiesche is the author of several books, including Cutting for Sign, Sahara Unveiled, and Inside the Sky. He is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, where American Ground originated as a three-part series.

Editorial Reviews

The one book to read, if you're only reading one.” —Detroit Free Press

“Slim but powerful . . . truth, unclouded by sentiment.” —The New York Times Book Review

“One of the most compelling, dramatic, and uplifting pieces of writing you are likely ever to read.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Extraordinary . . . An amazing piece of journalism, full of colorful characters and astonishing scenes.” —Peter Carlson, The Washington Post

“Says more about our essential character than a thousand maudlin tributes.” —Boris Kachka, New York

From the Publisher

Langewiesche had unrestricted access to Manhattan's Ground Zero during the post-September 11 cleanup, and his triptych of articles (originally published in the Atlantic Monthly) takes readers through what became known to its denizens as the Pile, from the moment of destruction to the departure of the last truckload of rubble from the ruins a little less than nine months later. He gives a calm, precise account of the air traffic controllers trying to understand what was happening to the hijacked planes and explains precisely how the towers collapsed. The stars of the rest of this story are people one doesn't usually read about: administrators, engineers and construction workers in charge of the cleanup-a process in which, as Langewiesche describes it, order emerged from chaos by the sheer force of will of those in charge. One such outsize personality is David Griffin, a demolition expert who drove up from North Carolina, bluffed his way onto the restricted site, and quickly wound up in a position of authority. There's also a frank account of the tensions between police and firefighters at Ground Zero. Most fascinating, though, Langewiesche takes readers right inside the smoking Pile, as he joins workers on dangerous underground expeditions to see whether the slurry walls that keep out the Hudson will hold, or whether freon might be leaking from underground refrigerators. This is a genuinely monumental story, told without melodrama, an intimate depiction of ordinary Americans reacting to grand-scale tragedy at their best-and sometimes their worst. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Langewiesche has had more access to Ground Zero than any other journalist. Here he offers a fascinating look at what happened to the World Trade Center in the days and months following the 9/11 attacks. With his strong baritone voice, Richard M. Davidson captures the tension, the difficulties, and the drama of what unfolded. He also uses vocal characterization when quoting various principals involved. The author gives an inside look at New York City politics and the tensions between firefighters, police, and other “tribes” in the city, as well those that emerged in the days and weeks following this tragedy. The precise damage to the WTC is presented, as well as the Herculean efforts to safely remove the debris. M.L.C. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

JUN/JUL 04 - AudioFile