A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and Its Aftermath

Book Overview

A powerful and eye-filling photographic chronicle of the award-winning New York Times 's coverage of 9/11 and its aftermath worldwide, including the war in Afghanistan In an unprecedented effort, The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0935112766
• ISBN13: 9780935112764
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Callaway Editions
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 3.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 10.1" x 12.4"

Customer Reviews

A great reminder of 9/11

This is a large coffee table size book of 240 pages.Although there have been a lot of similar books published,none are better.The New York Times received a Pulitzer prize for reporting on this event and thus were in a great position for putting this book together.It does a good job of showing how ehese towers collapsed,not covered in most books. This dasterdly attack on the US is on par with the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor.This book is good to keep handy to remind one of The War Om Terror that is underway.Regardless of the election talk now going on;the only mission has to be to win this war against Evil.America has pleaded for cooperation from other freedom loving countries,and it is amazing the rheotic and excuses she got in return.

a biased, but pictorially excellent book

The photographic record of the devastation at ground zero in New York City is extraordinary in this book, and it also includes many statistics, and analysis with charts on how the twin towers were constructed, and how and why they fell, transcripts from the final minutes of the four hijacked planes, 2 pages of small photos of the firefighters who lost their lives, and much more. Flight 93, whose heroic passengers took down in Pennsylvania, and Flight 77 which slammed into the Pentagon are only minimally covered. The book also has a chapter on the anthrax attack that followed 9/11, which took 5 lives and cost America millions, disrupted postal service, and created nation-wide fear. "It was one of those moments in which history splits, and we define the world as 'before' and 'after'". Editorial, September 12, 2001 (pg.17). The last 100 pages are about Afghanistan, and have a decidedly slanted feel to them; it is the U.S. bombs that are causing the problems, not the terror of the Taliban, who are being tortured and executed by the Northern Alliance soldiers (there is a play-by-play photographic study as the Alliance "drag a wounded Taliban soldier out of a ditch" and as the "terrified man begged for his life" brutally kill him). With sometimes subtle semantics, and sometimes not, this part of the book was definitely written by the "blame America first" crowd. The strength of this book is in the superb photography; from the moving, wrenching reminders of the planes going into the towers (with some spectacular aerial shots) and the heroism of the firefighters, to the regal portrait of Hamid Karzai in its final pages, it is a reminder of a day that changed the world, and time we should never forget. With thick, semi-gloss pages and excellent photo reproduction, this is a well made, high quality publication. "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve". President George W. Bush, September 12, 2001 (pg. 37).

Provocative and honest

This collection of photos and essays was one of the few to come out in 2002 that did not smack of "we're in it for the money" opportunism. Thoughtfully put together by the staff of the New York Times, A NATION CHALLENGED, is a poignant reminder of the events of 9/11/01, events that have been talked about so much that we have run out of words. Fortunately, the expression a picture is worth one thousand words holds true. Each photo speaks volumes from pity to horror, shock to acceptance, destruction to hope. While the compilation is slanted to the devestation that occurred in lower Manhattan, I don't believe that it's disproportionate. What happened here, to us, the carnage and destruction, was on such a huge scale that it merits the extra coverage. Also, so many of the events were captured on film by cameramen, professional and amateur, that there is a vast resource of horrific images from which to choose. Given that, I actually believe that the Times showed remarkable restraint. By no means does this diminish the outrages and sorrows of Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. New York's collective heart breaks for them, too, and the images of those scenes are no less dumbfounding. A NATION CHALLENGED is a professionally approached and executed photojournal. I only hope we'll never need this kind of book again.

One of the best books on the subject...

This stunning book presents the tragic events of that terrible day in complete detail. Since the book is published by the New York Times, it includes all of the information that they obtained by being a local source. Of all the books out about September 11, this is one of the best. If you want a vivid, pictorial history of the attacks, get a copy of this book.

Unven, but nonetheless remarkable book

There's no denying that the photography in this book is spectacular, and as one would expect from a NY Times book, the writing is superb. Unfortunately, "A Nation Challenged" doesn't completely live up to expectations. There are two main reasons for that. First, the coverage of 9/11 is overwhelmingly skewed towards the events at the World Trade Center. While there is no denying that New York City has come to represent the epicenter of that horrible day, there were equally horrific tragedies taking place on a smaller scale in Washington D.C. and over Pennsylvania. I would have expected that an institution as reputable as the New York Times would have taken a more balanced approach in their reporting. My second complaint is that the final forty pages, or so, are devoted exclusively to portraits of the Afghan people. In and of itself, that's fine, but given the book's title, I would have expected more American viewpoints, whether firemen, policemen, or members of the armed services. I fail to see what is gleaned about the American condition of the last year from interviews with Afghanis.Those thoughts aside, though, this is an incredible collection of photographs and writing that is well worth owning. One thing about 9/11 is that it was a beautiful sunny day, and the photographs in this volume would be stunning if they weren't so horrific. Interspersed with reproductions of Times' front pages and writing from those pages, are astonishing photographs (many of which I had never seen before) that capture that day and the following weeks in all their horror. ***WARNING, some of the pictures are very graphic, if you aren't prepared for the emotional impact of revisiting 9/11, you would do well to pass on this book. However, if you are prepared to turn your thoughts to that day when everything changed, this is the book to start with."A Nation Challenged" represents an excellent record, both visually and in writing, of 9/11. While there are already many books about that day available, and there will undoubtedly be hundreds more, I suspect that very few will be of the same quality as this volume. The reason for this is the weird dichotomy of a paper with global resources having the biggest event of the last fifty years take place in its backyard. While I do have some complaints with the distribution of the coverage, there is no debating the superb quality of the reporting and photography, or the immense integrity of the Times editorial board. This is not an easy book to look at, but it is a remarkable history of a day when, "history splits, and we define the world as `before' and `after.'"