After: The Rebuilding and Defending of America in the September 12 Era - Softcover

Within moments after the collapse of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon, and the downing of United Airlines Flight 93 over a field in Pennsylvania, the shocked world knew that much more than the spectacular New York City skyline had changed forever. Steven Brill shows us how profoundly true that is in this richly detailed, day-by-day account of how America mobilized to protect our now-clearly-vulnerable homeland and to help rebuild not just Ground Zero, but the thousands of shattered lives that were affected by the attacks. One marvels at the extent of the destruction and at the speed of the response. However, After does not present an always-pretty picture of good will and cooperation. Instead, we are shown a year of stunning juxtapositions: of extraordinary charity, brain power, and good intentions versus greed, self-interest, and bureaucratic incompetence. "It would all make for a harrowing test of a system in which all the players in this American symphony square off in a robust, often messy clash of ideas and special interests that is supposed to produce the public interest."

Brill presents a cross-section of the constituencies that were suddenly bound together after the catastrophe and deftly interweaves their stories. The book is at once personal and public, intimate and far-reaching. However, because of its very scope, it is at times ponderous. Many of the power players are familiar--Ashcroft, Schumer, and Ridge--but it is the others--the victims' families, the border patrol and customs officers, the newly targeted members of the Arab community--that give this story a human face. As Brill suggests, the story of After is far from complete. While some of the challenges presented in the book have been resolved, we know we will be confronting many of the others for years to come. --Silvana Tropea

Steven Brill is the founder of Journalism Online, a company designed to create a new, viable business model for journalism to flourish online.  He is a feature writer for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and TIME.  Brill founded the Yale Journalism Initiative, which recruits and trains journalists.  He founded and ran Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, and Brill's Content Magazine.  He is the author of After: How America Confronted the September 12th Era and The Teamsters.