A weird book to set a rating for so I have opted for a no rating. The author's introduction for this books talks about how no one listens to each other when people talk about where they were on 9/11, that everyone is only anticipating a break in the flow of conversation to talk about their own story. Well here it goes: I was 7 when 9/11 happened and have family across the river in New Jersey (I am in Canada). I was at home from school for lunch and we had no idea anything had happened until family in New Jersey called to let us know they were all OK. Then we watched the broadcast on the television and I stayed home from school that day. Hard to say how much (if any) the events of 9/11 influenced my interest in political science and current affairs. I remember life before 9/11 and often flew domestically, so I do remember the way life changed. It's difficult to think about "kids these days" in Canada / USA having never known a pre- 9/11 life. It struck me the most when I was a TA to first year political science classes during my master's degree studies and a student in the class said they were born in 2004, so did not know of life before. 

Of course, this book is focused on Americans and their response to the day and the immediate days in America afterwards. The book's focus was never to detail the "afterwards" for the other innocents devastated by the wars in ME as a direct result of American response to 9/11.  Perhaps more mention of this aspect could have been made, though I suppose the argument against this would be... "disrespect" for the victims (??) somehow. This book certainly does its job of capturing a very specific moment of time, the longue durée is not the book's aim, but I would encourage everyone reading this to look into the "afterwards". Life changed forever for Americans yes, but the resulting response via american military actions in the ME changed life forever for all the innocents there too.