After the Fall: New Yorkers Remember September 2001 and the Years That Followed

by Mary Marshall Clark, Peter Bearman (Editor), Catherine Ellis (Editor)

An unprecedented cross-section of New Yorkers—interviewed at intervals since 9/11—tell the story of the Trade Center attack and how it changed their lives

“The land we travel through in this book is New York City in the aftermath—both immediate and long term—of the spectacular attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.” —from the introduction to After the Fall

Published to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, After the Fall is a landmark oral history drawn from the celebrated collection of 9/11 interviews at Columbia University.

Within days of 9/11, Columbia’s Oral History Research Office deployed interviewers across the city to begin collecting the accounts and observations of hundreds of people from a diverse mix of New York neighborhoods and backgrounds. Over subsequent months and years, follow-up interviews produced a deep and revealing look at how the attacks changed individual lives and communities in New York City.

After the Fall presents a selection of these fascinating testimonies, with heartbreaking and enlightening stories from a broad range of New Yorkers. The interviews include first-responders, taxi drivers, school teachers, artists, religious leaders, immigrants, and others who were interviewed at intervals since the 2001 attacks. The result is a remarkable time-lapse account of the city as it changed in the wake of 9/11, one that will resonate powerfully with New Yorkers and millions of others who continue to feel the impact of the most damaging attack on American soil in history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Oral History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2011

About the author

Mary Marshall Clark is director of the Columbia Center for Oral History Research and cofounding director, with Peter Bearman, of the Oral History Master of Arts Program at Columbia University. She is coeditor of After the Fall: New Yorkers Remember September 2001 and the Years That Followed (2011) and coeditor of the Columbia Oral History Series.

Reviews

[Ali C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting accounts of September 11. I learned some new things about what actually happened that day, how it affected those involved, and how it still affects them now. These stories are not for the faint of heart though, if this book made anything clear, it is that this attack quickly brought a living hell to Manhattan.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional oral history project by the amazing Columbia Oral History Research Office, including 19 remarkable and well-curated testimonies. They range from street vendors to professors, first responders sprinting through ground zero to people with disabilities trying to get help, young students to older folks. Most describe their experiences on the day, what they saw and felt, but more importantly, most include information on how people have gone on in the aftermath. Making sense of the events, and understanding how they continue to affect the survivors, is a huge component of this book, and the researchers were thoughtful enough to re-interview the narrators after a period of a few years, so you get the sense that you are keeping up with the survivors.

I very much appreciated that the life stories of these people are often included beyond just their 9/11 experience. Not only does it personalize their account, but it also serves as an important reminder that these people did not experience 9/11 as simply a witness or survivor, but rather as a fully-realized individual, with pasts and futures. It makes their presence in the text gratifying, and it makes the reader remember that each person who didn't survive the attacks was far more than a victim. It has the added benefit of documenting these life stories in a well-operated oral history archive, which may not have happened otherwise.

My favorite part of the book is the diversity of the people they interviewed. As mentioned above, they spoke with young, old, fit, disabled, poor, wealthy. Though it's impossible to get a true cross-section of New York, or America, in only 19 interviews, the researchers did an excellent job of pulling in various perspectives. I especially learned from the testimony of a Sikh man and his response to xenophobia following the attacks, as well as a polio survivor who struggled to protect herself in an environment of limited accessibility resources.

This is an extremely powerful set of oral histories that personalize and document the survivors of 9/11. It is heartwrenching and often disturbing, and it is not for the faint of heart. These are people's real experiences of an absolutely terrifying and horrific event - the text reflects that. However, it is an incredible resource for understanding that day and the many days to come. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the topic but stress its intense and emotional nature. I think my grandfather would love this book.

[Randy Ladenheim-Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came very close to tears reading some of these oral histories. Absolutely worth reading. As a New Yorker, it was, in a way, my story. I didn't have an experience like any of these people. Nor did I watch events on TV. I saw the Towers burn from a window in an office in Rockefeller Center. I worried that I wouldn't be able to get home when transportation was shut down. When I heard that the subway was back up, I left my building on Sixth Avenue and saw people walking uptown covered in soot, etc., crying as they walked. At home, in my fifth-floor apartment, I sat in my living room and watched birds fleeing Manhattan and the sky darken as things I didn't want to think about moving past. I'm better now, but it took me more than a decade to get here.

[Lenore Kuipers-Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Then all hell broke loose. All the metal, the concrete, the pellets of white, light fabric from the walls, and there was just a stream, a waterfall, of brown, black ash. And it just came down and came down and came down." James P. Hayes, Priest
Columbia's Oral History Research Office and the Institute for Social and Economic Research Policy hired interviewers to collect accounts and observations of hundreds of people throughout New York City. The book took ten years to put together how the 9/11 attacks changed people's lives and communities; a time-lapse account of how the people and the city of New York changed.
This book was very emotional for me, because it was so personally told. I will never forget it.

[David Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This oral history of 9/11 details people who were in the towers, around the towers and waiting for loved ones to get home on that fateful day in 2001.
A hard book to read but I would urge others to do so.

[Julie Heitland]

19 people share their experience of what they saw or did on September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center was hit by planes and subsequently collapsed. The people are from all careers and nationalities.

[Ginny T · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a powerful read, a tour of the events of 9/11 and the aftermath through the eyes of those who experienced it. The different perspectives were valuable as they pointed to events and opinions that I would never have understood.

[Charlene McGrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful

Very good idea to get this oral history written down. Very moving and powerful stories. We need to hear more of them.

[K2 ----- · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read more than my share of "9/11 books" in the past decade and I still found this one to be worthwhile and add new information and perspectives.

This is a small bit of an oral history project that took place and the pieces are well chosen. I was most moved by the blind woman who ran the candy stand who spoke about how September 11th impacted those who were disabled and a therapist to had post-polio syndrome. These were both voices I hadn't heard and hadn't considered quite as vividly as I did. I also appreciated several people who lived in Tribeca who spoke of how their lives were impacted and what that day was like for them and the aftermath of rebuilding their lives. I also enjoyed the Sikh scholar and several Muslims who spoke about how they felt vulnerable and discriminated against even though they were US citizens.

New Press publishes marvelous books, I have not read one so far that isn't worthwhile and will often seek them out as a result. I am surprised this book didn't get more stars on GoodReads perhaps people don't want to read books that recount unpleasant topics so vividly. The "in their own words" part of the book made it that much more powerful to me. I can't only imagine the number of hours of interviewing that took place and how difficult it must have been to choose these among many many more.

I think that it would make a marvelous book club book for the variety of experiences detailed here not just the words of the many 9/11 widows whose stories have been more widely covered and are important too but this gives a broader viewpoint. This book will endure whereas many others will fade with the passage of time. Tip of the hat to Studs---RIP.

[Liane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interviews with 19 New Yorkers (artists, street vendors, paramedics, psychotherapists and priests to name a few) compiled by Columbia University Oral History Research Office in NYC.

Stunning stories of what they saw, how they survived. Horrifying images but also heartwarming miracles. Such compelling interviews, I felt as though I was there. Emotional descriptions of events and the PTSD after-effects that I don't think most people know about. Some of the stories address the after-effects of trauma and PTSD and coping with fear. After any life-threatening event, such as 911 or a serious illness, resilience and rebirth is key to overcome the trauma and fear. Case in point, the IT manager interview where she said... 'I am not afraid of anything anymore. I can be walking in the worst section of Queens at night and I am not afraid, because I outran the collapse of the World Trade Center and survived...'.

This book will stay with me a long time, it is so compelling and heartfelt and I so respect and admire all of these survivors.

[Joseph Tuano · Rating 5 out of 5]

After blindly picking up this book at a library, I was not disappointed with the book's content. Contained in the book was a collection of verbal stories of what happened on September 11, 2001. These recordings were later transmitted into writing and were bound in this novel. These stories were vivid, giving you a sense that you were actually there on Lower Manhattan. What I also loved about this book was the variety of people they interviewed. They ranged from an woman living in an apartment, shadowed by the World Trade Center, to a simple newspaper merchant, selling small goods at his newsstand. This book is visually subtle in the way its presented and bold in the way the words on the pages come to life, conveying intense emotion and imagery.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better oral history collections of 9/11 I've read. Instead of letting the interviewees go into whatever they wanted, the interviewers gave them a path. It's well edited, and as the narratives go on, you can see the story take shape. There's an agenda, after all, and it's not a bad one, but the book takes you from the relatively safe topics of what people experienced on that day to what minorities experienced not just that day but the days that followed. It ends with a trauma specialist, which makes perfect sense.

This is not the best read I've come across, but the clear theme makes it one of my favored 9/11 books.

[Jean louise Finch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty interesting book. Stories about how different people dealt with September 11th and it's aftermath. Not a feel good book at all.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profound and moving. 10/16/12

[REO Bookwagon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting oral history of how some New Yorkers are coping with and after 9/11, two of whom are disabled (one is blind, the other has post-polio syndrome).

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Defies review, really. A collection of interviews from various people about the attack and its aftermath. Well structured, often harrowing.

[Nicole Corali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book with first-hand accounts of the events in New York during 9/11. Probably something every American should read.

[Edward · Rating 2 out of 5]

A handful of the people they interviewed had riveting tales, and I learned a few new things.