Until The Fires Stopped Burning: 9/11 and New York City in the Words and Experiences of Survivors and Witnesses

Strozier, the director for the Center of Terrorism at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, collects interviews with individuals inside the towers as well as those who watched the events unfold from a distance, from other boroughs, or from around the world. As the first disaster of its kind broadcast live across the globe, Strozier argues that the event was “immediately and repeatedly played back with more and deepening commentary,” an unprecedented presentation by the media that led to different responses depending on the viewers’ proximity to Ground Zero. His research is based on analyzing subjects’ interviews, and consequently, the book feels more like a survey—accessible and anecdotal if cursory. Readers will find the analysis more provocative than satisfying—such compelling sections as one on the language of traumatic memory are too summarily and swiftly handled. Still, the brisk treatment and somewhat repetitive presentation are more than compensated by the breadth of new information on how citizens experienced and psychologically processed the day. (Sept.)