A 9/11 literary trilogy (Ephemera 01)
A trio of books by Lawrence Wright, Garrett Graff and Spencer Ackerman give a well-rounded - if American skewed - look at the attacks and their impact
I mentioned a while back in my Mission Statement post that I had an idea to write about some of the pop culture ephemera of the last few decades, based on a defunct podcast idea I once had.
Why the last few decades? I really only came online as far as pop culture goes in the early 1990s. I have one memory of being fascinated in the mid-80s by the rediscovery of the Titanic wreck, but its straight on to the grunge era from there.
And for all that time, the spectre of terrorism has been a part of my life.
I have memories of the World Trade Centre bombing in 1993 at the hands of Ramzi Yousef and a small group of co-conspirators; the attack is now considered one of the first moves al-Qaeda made against the United States, even though there is no confirmation they ordered it.
I remember the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995 at the hands of Timothy McVeigh, carried out as payback for the Ruby Ridge and Waco sieges. I remember being horrified that anyone could carry out an attack that would hurt so many children (McVeigh’s bomb went off beside a daycare).
I remember the attack on the USS Cole in the middle of 2000, while it was moored in the Aden harbour, in Yemen. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was an al-Qaeda hit as well. Apparently, Bin Laden boasted about it in recruitment videos he made later.
And I remember 9/11. We all do.
My point is that as long as I’ve been consciously aware of popular culture around me, that consciousness has had a backdrop of terrorism. It was there when I listened to my first Nirvana album. I knew who outfits like the FBI were because of The X Files. By the time I was doing shots for my 21st birthday, Bush had already entered America into the War On Terror.
To be honest, I’ve always thought of the September 11 attacks as a formative experience. It was the biggest news event that had occurred in my life to that point. It probably still is. It might always be. I remember where I was when I first heard the news (I was living temporarily back with my parents and was woken by my Mum to come see). I remember what I did that day (I was working in the retail arm of a small ISP, and spent the day watching coverage on television).
I remember being scared of something real for the first time.
I’d never given much thought to what actually happened though. Like, I hadn’t really stopped to think about what caused it, how it actually happened, what happened after. My understanding grew over the years through retrospective coverage, documentaries and such, through the ‘Forever War’. Not just my understanding of the event, but my understanding of America itself.
One example of this: if I’m talking with my parents about current affairs, I find they occasionally correct me if I’m critical of America.
It makes sense. They grew up with America going to the moon even while they were stuck in Vietnam in the 70s, with Reagan’s ‘shining city on a hill’ imagery through the 80s, with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Berlin Wall in the early 90s, with Clinton playing his saxophone through the mid-90s.
I grew up - like, matured - with a bitter and embattled America, grasping to this idea of its own exceptionalism, believing that they could take their hegemony to the Middle East and force it on Afghanistan and Iraq and anyone else who wanted to come at them; an angry America that didn’t care who they were shooting at because someone had to pay for the insult of 9/11; a hypocritical America that lost a shade under 3,000 innocent people and repaid that loss by killing over 900,000 directly and as many as 3.7 million indirectly.
Thinking back on the day, I wrote back in 2004 that George W. Bush was “an angry father looking for retribution”. I wish I was still that naive.
This year I set out to learn more, so I did some research into what might constitute a well-rounded read into 9/11 before, during and after. The recommendations I received most formed a trilogy of sorts:
Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006)
Garrett M. Graff’s The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 (2019)
Spencer Ackerman’s Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump (2021)
I read them in this order, so they kind of formed a linear narrative. In terms of the content, there is very little overlap from one book to the next - Wright’s book ends on 9/11, Graff’s the night before, and Ackerman’s features a short recap of what led up to the attacks.
Interestingly, I was surprised how all three tied into various bits of media I’d consumed before - as one example, Ackerman talks about the Oklahoma bombing briefly, but mentions Carol Howe, who was the centre of Jon Ronson’s podcast The Debutante. And the recently released fourth season of Serial focuses on Guantanemo Bay, so I’m sure a few familiar names will pop up. Not to mention those whose stories continue through all three books - CIA director George Tenet being one name I got tired of hearing.
I’d seen the television series based on The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 back in the day, the one starring Jeff Daniels in the lead role, but the book is so much more in depth (as you’d rightly expect). It starts decades ago, before the formation of Islamist fundamentalism as we know it now, not just the early days of the keys players in the founding of al Qaeda - the Bin Ladens, the Sheikh Mohammeds, the al-Zawahiris - but prior to that, back to the 50s and 60s.
It’s an incredibly detailed book that explores the motives behind the attacks, the lead up to the actions taken that day - and also delves in to what the American security apparatus was doing at the time (the answer: mostly just not communicating properly and having trouble being taken seriously).
Out of the three, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 is definitely the most affecting. The others have their moments, but Only Plane in the Sky is essentially a minute by minute account of the day of the attacks, not holding back details or sugar-coating anything. The truth of the day is somewhat horrifying when you see it all written out like that - and doubly so when it describes something that you can corroborate for yourself because you remember it from the news coverage or from a documentary.
The third book, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, is certainly the one with the widest scope - and it is written with a kind of disapproving tone - but it isn’t disapproving of one side or the other specifically: writer Spencer Ackerman covers the War On Terror from 9/11 all the way to the first year of Biden’s presidency, and he is scathing about both Republicans and Democrats.
The truth is that both organisations are as guilty as each other; one fact I found stunning was that the Department Of Homeland Security didn’t exist prior to the 9/11 attacks - it was founded in 2002 under a Democratic senate. The Republican Bush administration declared war, but it was with the co-operation of the Democratic Party in control of the Senate that they were able to introduce the legislation - such as the Patriot Act - that effectively turned America into a surveillance state. The book goes through this phase in great detail; by the time Trump shows up, his arrival (and win) feels all but inevitable.
Collectively, these books give you a fairly well rounded understanding of the attacks, and what has happened since. I’d recommend them to anyone interested in learning a bit more about that day.
Five Songs Worth Checking Out!
2001 one hit wonders edition
> Blu Cantrell - “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops)”
The sad thing is that this is a decent song.
> Debelah Morgan - “Dance With Me”
This song is not a decent song. To be honest, I always assumed it had been written for a dance movie of some kind. Nope.
> ATC - “Around The World (La La La La La La)”
ATC are the Temu-bought version of the Venga Boys.
> City High - “What Would You Do?”
What would I do? Forget this song existed until researching this list.
> Crazy Town - “Butterfly”
Confession time: I was in a covers band at the time this came out and I can confirm that it went HARD for a good 12-18 months there.
Thanks for reading, everyone - this is the first post in my look back at pop culture ephemera, a series which inspired the name of my SubStack. I promise the next one will be a little lighter in tone.
See you Friday for my week in music!
C