Abstract
Narrativization of September 11 began with the stories told by the witnesses and survivors who encountered the events firsthand. Such stories inform three popular press September 11 oral history collections. Each collection centralizes eyewitness accounts of in-the-moment action as the day’s exigencies progress, particularly from those who were present at the World Trade Center. As publications for mass, rather than academic, consideration, these September 11 oral histories self-consciously position themselves as contributions to an accessible public historical record. As narratives shaped by the experiential limitations of people caught in dire and chaotic circumstances, these anecdotes of discrete personal ordeals root a history of September 11 in radical unsettlements about safety and agency, unsettlements that intimate a culturally traumatic rupture of expectations about ordinary life.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
911Research.com. 2009. Long-suppressed oral histories corroborate demolitions. September 11. http://www.911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/oralhistories/index.html
A Customer. 2002a. Reality check. Amazon.com, October 1. https://www.amazon.com/Never-Forget-Oral-History-September/product-reviews/0060514337/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2
———. 2002b. You probably have no idea… Amazon.com, September 24. https://www.amazon.com/Never-Forget-Oral-History-September/productreviews/0060514337/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2
Abruzzo, John. 2002. John Abruzzo. In Never forget: An oral history of September 11, 2001, ed. Mitchell Fink and Lois Mathias, 124–127. New York: Reganbooks.
avid reader. 2007. Awesome history. Amazon.com, October 25. http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Stories-An-Oral-History/product-reviews/1595800212/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending
Bill Baker. 2004. I’m so glad someone took the time to write a book like this. Amazon.com, September 10. http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Stories-Autobiography-September-11th/product-reviews/0974868450
Bonilla, Alberto. 2007. Alberto Bonilla. In Tower stories: An oral history of 9/11, ed. Damon DiMarco, 164–170. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.
Botelho, Greg. 2005. Stories to tell: College pals document 9/11 experiences of “realpeople”. CNN.com. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/america.remembers/stories/overview/index.html.
Breckenridge, James N., and Philip G. Zimbardo. 2007. The strategy of terrorism and the psychology of mass-mediated fear. In Psychology of terrorism, ed. Bruce Bongar, Lisa M. Brown, Larry E. Beutler, James N. Breckenridge, and Philip G. Zimbardo, 116–133. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Breithaupt, Fritz. 2003. Rituals of trauma: How the media fabricated September 11. In Media representation of September 11, ed. Steven Chermak, Frankie Y. Bailey, and Michelle Brown, 67–81. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Brier, Stephen, and Joshua Brown. 2011. The September 11 digital archive: Saving the histories of September 11, 2001. Radical History Review 111: 101–109.
Brown, Cathy. 2002. Richard and Cathy Brown: A family’s walk through the valley of the shadow of death. In September 11: An oral history, ed. Dean E. Murphy, 105–112. New York: Doubleday.
Clark, Mary Marshall. 2002. The September 11, 2001, Oral History Narrative And Memory Project: A first report. The Journal of American History September: 569–579.
CookieMonster. 2006. A difficult read, but an important one. Amazon.com, November 15. http://www.amazon.com/Never-Forget-Oral-History-September/product-reviews/B000H2N7CO
Cvetkovich, Ann. 2003. Trauma ongoing. In Trauma at home: After 9/11, ed. Judith Greenberg, 60–66. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
———. 2011. Can the diaspora speak? Afghan Americans and the 9/11 oral history archive. Radical History Review 111(Fall): 90–100.
Däwes, Birgit. 2011. Ground Zero Fiction: History, memory, and representation in the American 9/11 novel. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH Heidelberg.
DiMarco, Damon, ed. 2007. Tower stories: An oral history of 9/11. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press. Reprinted of Tower Stories: The Autobiography of September 11. New York: Revolution Publishing, 2004.
Duvall, John N. 2011. Witnessing trauma: Falling Man and performance art. In S. Olster, 152–168.
Engel, Paul. 2002. Paul Engel: A priest with a heavy and angry heart. In September 11: An oral history, ed. Dean E. Murphy, 112–117. New York: Doubleday.
Engoran, Florence. 2007. Florence Engoran. In Tower stories: An oral history of 9/11, ed. Damon DiMarco, 48–58. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.
Fink, Mitchell, and Lois Mathias, eds. 2002. Never forget: An oral history of September 11, 2001. New York: Reganbooks.
Fried, Amy. 2006. The personalization of collective memory: The Smithsonian’s September 11 exhibit. Political Communication 23: 387–405.
Gaeta, Gerry. 2002. Gerry Gaeta: Of lost friends, family and buildings. In September 11: An oral history, ed. Dean E. Murphy, 49–57. New York: Doubleday.
Gallagher, Catherine, and Stephen Greenblatt. 2000. Practicing new historicism. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Gauthier, Tim. 2015. 9/11 fiction, empathy, and otherness. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Griffin, David Ray. 2006. Explosive testimony: Revelations about the twin towers in the 9/11 oral histories. 911Truth.org, January 18. http://www.911truth.org/explosive-testimony-revelations-twin-towers-in-911-oral-histories/
Howie, Luke. 2013. Witnessing terrorism. Journal of Sociology September: 1–15.
Iconophoric. 2002. The best one volume I have read about Sept. 11. Amazon.com, September 24. https://www.amazon.com/September-11-History-Dean-Murphy-ebook/dp/0385507682/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469730822&sr=81&keywords=september+11+an+oral+history
ideas equate. 2005. Unifying testimonials. Amazon.com, May 27. https://www.amazon.com/Never-Forget-Oral-History-September/product-reviews/0060514337/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent
Inglip. 2008. Shocking, humbling, and human. Amazon.com, September 10. https://www.amazon.com/September-11-History-Dean-Murphy/productreviews/0385507682/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent
Irom, Bimbisar. 2012. Alterities in a time of terror: Notes on the subgenre of the American 9/11 novel. Contemporary Literature 53(3): 517–547.
Jarvis, Lee. 2011. 9/11 digitally remastered? Internet archives, vernacular memories and WhereWereYou.org. Journal of American Studies 45(4): 793–814.
Kandel, Randy Frances. 2003. Narrative reconstruction at Ground Zero. In Media representation of September 11, ed. Steven Chermak, Frankie Y. Bailey, and Michelle Brown, 187–200. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Kean, Thomas. 2007. Foreword. In Tower stories: An oral history of 9/11, ed. Damon DiMarco, 12–14. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.
Kirby, R. Kenneth. 2008. Phenomenology and the problems of oral history. The Oral History Review 35: 22–38.
Kravette, David. 2002. David Kravette. In Never forget: An oral history of September 11, 2001, ed. Mitchell Fink and Lois Mathias, 43–47. New York: Reganbooks.
Landau, Mark J., et al. 2004. Deliver us from evil: the effects of mortality salience and reminders of 9/11 on support for President George W. Bush. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30(9): 1136–1150.
Mahler, Jonathan. 2002. Survivors’ voices keep horror fresh. New York Times, August 29, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/books/survivors-voices-keep-horror-fresh.html
Martin A. Hogan Marty from SF. 2002. A book like no other. Amazon.com, August 29, https://www.amazon.com/Never-Forget-Oral-HistorySeptember/dp/0060514337/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468709266&sr=11&keywords=never+forget+fink+mathias
McAlister, Melani. 2002. A cultural history of the war without end. The Journal of American History 89(2): 439–455.
Miller, Nancy K., and Jason Tougaw. 2002. Introduction: Extremities. In Extremities: Trauma, testimony, and community, ed. Nancy K. Miller and Jason Tougaw, 1–21. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Morales, Kimberly. 2002. A college student’s unplanned lesson in suicide. In September 11: An oral history, ed. Dean E. Murphy, 127. New York: Doubleday.
Murphy, Dean E. 2002. September 11: An oral history. New York: Doubleday.
Portelli, Alessandro. 1997. The battle of valle giulia: Oral history and the art of dialogue. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Randall, Martin. 2011. 9/11 and the literature of terror. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Rangaswamy, Saravanan. 2002. Saravanan Rangaswamy: An immigrant’s first day on the job. In September 11: An oral history, ed. Dean E. Murphy, 37–40. New York: Doubleday.
Smith, Alex, and Rick Schindler. 2011. Five must-read books about 9/11 and its legacy. TODAY Books, September 8. http://www.today.com/id/44429361/ns/today-today_books/t/five-must-read-books-about-its-legacy/#.VT1i-2RVikp
Sturken, Marita. 1997. Tangled memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic, and the politics of remembering. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Thomson, Alistair. 1999. Making the most of memories: The empirical and subjective value of oral history. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 9: 291–301.
tricia. 2002. September 11: An oral history by Dean E. Murphy. Amazon.com, September 12. https://www.amazon.com/September-11-History-Dean-Murphy/product-reviews/0385507682/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2
Veliz, Teresa. 2002. Teresa Veliz: A prayer to die quickly and painlessly. In September 11: An oral history, ed. Dean E. Murphy, 9–15. New York: Doubleday.
Voices of 9.11. 2012. Here is New York, December 27. http://hereisnewyorkv911.org/
Whitaker, Anthony R. 2002. Anthony R. Whitaker. In Never forget: An oral history of September 11, 2001, ed. Mitchell Fink and Lois Mathias, 22–26. New York: Reganbooks.
White, Geoffrey M. 2004. National subjects: September 11 and Pearl Harbor. American Ethnologist 31: 293–310.
Young, James E. 1988. Writing and rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the consequences of interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Muller, C. (2017). Popular Press Oral Histories of September 11. In: September 11, 2001 as a Cultural Trauma. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50155-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50155-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50154-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50155-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)