American Ground : Unbuilding The World Trade Center

The dismantling and removal of the massive ruins of the World Trade Center was a daunting, hazardous, emotionally lacerating experience for the men and women who gave of themselves to the point of exhaustion (and beyond) in the months following September 11th. Early in the effort William Langewiesche obtained unrestricted access to The Pile in order to chronicle everything from the relentless grunt-work needed to pull apart rebar in the retrieval of bodies living and dead, to the turf wars between egos and city departments up and down a constantly-evolving chain of command. Here for the first time this reviewer learned that it was feared the city's subway system might collapse and flood all the way to Central Park; that personnel of the NYPD and NYFD were often at each others' throats over the need to recover dead firemen versus the need to secure and later clean up a crime site; and that looting at Ground Zero (by recovery workers and others) was common and condoned. This last item occasioned much controversy when American Ground was first published, a contretemps commented upon by Langewiesche in a new afterword to this paperback edition. This is one of the few indispensable books (so far) on the aftermath of September 11th; the author's great achievement is to demonstrate how a crowd of flawed, cantankerous, driven individuals made of itself an ad hoc community of heroes (no other word will suffice) in response to an unprecedented challenge. Throughout our history we have prided ourselves on this aspect of our national character; this book shows us that, in virtue of the sacrifices of these self-summoned responders, there exists now no soil more profoundly American than those few acres at the southern tip of Manhattan.

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.

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

"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

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Distributor: MPS
Publication Date: 09-11-2003
Pages: 240
Measurements: 8.260in X 5.490in X 0.635in X 0.480lb