The Day That Shook the World : understanding September 11th

Downing, Malcolm; Baxter, Jenny

ISBN 10: 0563488026 / ISBN 13: 9780563488026

Published by BBC Worldwide, 2001

About this Item

2001 BBC Worldwide first edition paperback; very good copy, near as new; UK dealer, immediate dispatch.

Seller Inventory # J4081

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Day That Shook the World : understanding September 11th
• Publisher: BBC Worldwide
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0563488026
• ISBN 13: 9780563488026
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Throughout the world, the BBC News team is respected for its authority, balance and integrity. In the light of recent tragic events, the team has produced a book of essays to explain to the general reader why the World Trade Centre attack occurred. This volume includes contributions by some of the most prominent foreign correspondents: Fergal Keane; Stephen Evans; George Alagiah; Brian Hanrahan; Gordon Corera; Paul Reynolds; John Simpson; Mike Wooldridge; Barnaby Mason; Orla Guerin; Bridget Kendall; Andrew Marr; Jeff Randall; Jonathan Marcus; and Allan Little. As well as placing the current situation in a historical context, the pieces include personal anecdotes from the correspondents, many of whom are writing in the field.

Review

If journalism is the first draft of history, The Day That Shook The World is one of the best first drafts you could wish to read about the terrible, perplexing and awesome events of September 11, 2001.

The book is a BBC News "production" (although any profits will go to charities linked with the tragedy). As such it is able to draw on the wide and impressive skills of all the BBC’s TV and radio journalists, from Westminster insiders like Andrew Marr to Middle East reporters like Orla Guerlin. Even newscasting celebrities like John Simpson have taken time out from liberating Kabul to include their thoughts.

Each journalist (there are 15 in total) has a chapter in which to dwell and declaim on some aspect of the terrorist attack and its still unfolding geopolitical aftermath. The book begins with the devastation of Ground Zero in Manhattan, trawls through the religious, economic and cultural sequel of that event and ends with the capture of the Afghan capital by the Northern Alliance.

Perhaps inevitably the most obviously impacting chapters are those on the New York atrocities, like Stephen Evans’ appallingly vivid first person account of being stuck in the World Trade towers as they collapsed. Other sections, like John Simpson’s discourse on "Afghanistan’s Tragedy", are more distantly pensive and others, like Jeff Randall’s fascinating chapter on the economic ramifications, are more analytic. All 15 chapters are equally cogent, informed, persuasive--and valuable. --Sean Thomas