American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (Paperback)

by William Langewiesche (Author) "When the Twin Towers collapsed, on the warm, bright morning of September 11, 2001, they made a sound heard variously around New York as a..." (more)
Key Phrases: diesel excavators, foundation hole, skeletal walls, Trade Center, New York, Port Authority (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Langewiesche had unrestricted access to Manhattan's Ground Zero during the post-September 11 cleanup, and his triptych of articles (originally published in the Atlantic Monthly) takes readers through what became known to its denizens as the Pile, from the moment of destruction to the departure of the last truckload of rubble from the ruins a little less than nine months later. He gives a calm, precise account of the air traffic controllers trying to understand what was happening to the hijacked planes and explains precisely how the towers collapsed. The stars of the rest of this story are people one doesn't usually read about: administrators, engineers and construction workers in charge of the cleanup-a process in which, as Langewiesche describes it, order emerged from chaos by the sheer force of will of those in charge. One such outsize personality is David Griffin, a demolition expert who drove up from North Carolina, bluffed his way onto the restricted site, and quickly wound up in a position of authority. There's also a frank account of the tensions between police and firefighters at Ground Zero. Most fascinating, though, Langewiesche takes readers right inside the smoking Pile, as he joins workers on dangerous underground expeditions to see whether the slurry walls that keep out the Hudson will hold, or whether freon might be leaking from underground refrigerators. This is a genuinely monumental story, told without melodrama, an intimate depiction of ordinary Americans reacting to grand-scale tragedy at their best-and sometimes their worst.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"The one book to read, if you're only reading one."
--Detroit Free Press

"Slim but powerful . . . truth, unclouded by sentiment."
--The New York Times Book Review

"One of the most compelling, dramatic, and uplifting pieces of writing you are likely ever to read."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Extraordinary . . . An amazing piece of journalism, full of colorful characters and astonishing scenes."
--Peter Carlson, The Washington Post

"Says more about our essential character than a thousand maudlin tributes."
--Boris Kachka, New York
-- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: North Point Press (September 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865476756
• ISBN-13: 978-0865476752
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,517 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that has not been told, November 24, 2002

By	Margaret E. Chung "kumotwo" (Denver, Colorado USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (Hardcover)

William Langewiesche is a superb writer. I had read one of the three articles on the Trade Towers he had written for the Atlantic Monthly and was stunned by the insight and honesty of what he had observed and been a part of while at ground zero. I could not wait to get my hands on this book to read his entire account.
Mr.Langewiwsche brings us the story of what happens in the days after the Trade Towers collapsed. He has made it clear that there is a distinction between what happened on September 11th, and during the rescue and recovery phase. I have heard him in an interview on NPR radio saying that all the people on September 11th were heros. Absolutely. Many died trying to save others. The true focus of his book is what happened to the people left in the aftermath, left to do the clean up of such a horrendous tragedy, left to deal with the wave of emotional devastation and loss. Some rode the wave admirably, and some did not.
What makes this work so special is the very way the author lets us see the humaness of the people working in the disaster site. We are all a mixture of good and bad, hero and coward, recognition seeker and recluse. Langewiesche brings those characteristics to the front of his story. He took me into a world that I fear we will see more of. Great, unthinkable tragedy, and our response to staggering loss.
Human beings still have to deal with their strengths and weaknesses, even when the world turns upside down. We all hope that our better sides will come shining through in the event of a catastrophe. This book is a blue print to make sure that happens. It focuses on the ways we are great-- taking risks to save others, working tirelessly day and night, and on ways we are not--petty turf wars, insensitive pride and self rightousness.
I have noticed that friends I have given this book to have very strong reactions to it. They either love the book, or find the writers' story offensive. They were bothered by the image of a fire truck filled with stolen Gap blue jeans, of firefighters searching for lost brothers ignoring the civilian dead, and of battles over which group got to dig for bodies in different areas. One friend thought that any bad bahavior reported about the Trade Tower clean up was anti-American. I disagree. I think the writing shows how resiliant and strong Americans are and I think it shows us how human we are. In war, there are all kinds of reactions and responses, some admirable and some not. In this work, I found a guide to decide what kind of person I want to be should another tragedy fall on us. One of the finest pieces of writing I have read. Could not recommend highly enough.

51 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating insights, October 4, 2002

By	stackofbooks "stackofbooks" (Walpole, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (Hardcover)

Langewiesche's book is a result of brilliant reporting and essentially tells us, as the title says, how the debris from the 9-11 tragedy was dealt with. He describes with clarity the utter chaos at the site and the noisy democracy that prevailed and that allowed a small organization called the DDC (Department of Design and Construction) to direct recovery efforts. He also details the personality clashes between the different factions at the site-an inevitable result of working under extreme, trying conditions.

Langewiesche's descriptions of the ruins (along with the wonderful pictures) are chilling: "Most of the rooms (of the Deutsche Bank dining area) had been unoccupied at the time of the attack, and were set for lunch-with fresh place mats, plates, and utensils, and sets of stemmed glasses, some of which had been capsized and broken by the pressure waves and lay now as they had fallen, like everything else here, under a feathery gauze of the Twin Towers' remains." His account of the last minutes of American Airlines Flight 11 and its last conversations with an air-traffic controller in Boston Center are eerie and scary.

The book describes the recovery effort and all the personalities who made it happen, wonderfully. I found myself admiring the soft-spoken demolition expert from North Carolina, David Griffin who, true to the American method, just showed up at the site, proved his merit, and got the job.

I was comforted in a strange sort of way to read that most of the steel recovered from the WTC site was sold as scrap and trucked away to countries such as China, who would put the steel to good use and recycle it. As Langewiesche puts it, "It was a strangely appropriate fate for these buildings, named for just this sort of trade."

In the end, 1.5 million tons of debris was hauled away from the World Trade Center site. The scale alone is daunting enough. That the recovery effort was carried out efficiently and with respect for the dead, is a triumph in an otherwise trying time. Langewiesche's book pays well-deserved homage to the people and the institutions that made it happen.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Controversial View of the Fire Department, December 23, 2002

By	John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (Hardcover)

What an interesting book this turned out to be. The author takes the reader through the rescue, recovery and clean up effort at the World Trade Center after the 9-11 attacks. I tend to like a book with a lot of facts and that is exactly what this book delivered. Interesting tid bits that an account based only on the attack or rescue just would not cover. He goes in depth into all aspects of the clean up from how the material was taken off the pile, transport to a landfill, and the sorting of the material at the landfill. The review of the management of the process was also well written. It takes a good author to make some of these mundane issues exciting and this author did it.

I think the most unexpected part of the book for me was the hard look he took at the actions of the firefighters during the clean up. It was not flattering and for the most part the negative items he reports are not very well known. As you read other reviews this particular item appears to elicit the most emotion. Overall this was a very interesting book. The detail was there and it was well written. My only complaint would be that it was only 200 pages - I would have liked even more detail.