Terrorized: How the War on Terror Affected American Culture and Society

by Brian Finney

"Terrorized" describes the dramatic effects that President Bush's war on terror had on the American psyche. What happened after 9/11 was of monumental proportions while remaining largely invisible at the time. Trauma succeeded fear and was displaced by a thirst for revenge. The Bush administration both set precedents for and reflected Americans' response to the attacks on 9/11. The book focuses on different themes in each chapter - trauma and patriotic fervor, revenge, the turn to religion and away from science, the cult of secrecy, the surveillance society, the militarization of American civil society, the acceptance of torture,and the creation of an unregulated free market. Each chapter traces the connection between government policies and practices and individual Americans' beliefs and behavior. Have the years 2001-2008 forever changed American culture and undercut Americans' belief in an ever-improving future? Or will Americans abandon fear for hope and a renewed sense of national unity? The author has published six previous books, including the prize-winning "Christopher Isherwood:A Critical Biography"

483 pages, ebook

First published March 16, 2011

About the author

Brian Finney is a prize-winning writer and professor emeritus in English literature. Born in London, he obtained a BA (hons) in English and Philosophy at Reading University and a PhD on D. H. Lawrence’s shorter fiction at University of London, where he taught literature and arranged extra-mural courses in the arts from 1964 to 1987. After immigrating to Southern California he taught at UC Riverside, UCLA, the University of Southern California ad California State University Long Beach.

He has published eight books. His second book, Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography, was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for non-fiction that year. It was also voted one of the best three books of the year by Philip Toynbee in the Observer. He went on to publish, among others, The Inner I, a pioneering study of British literary autobiography, and a widely cited book about British fiction in the eighties and nineties, English Fiction Since 1984. In 2011 he published on Amazon Terrorized: How the War on Terror Affected American Culture and Society. He has also edited three editions of D. H. Lawrence’s work, and published a range of essays and reviews in various journals and newspapers.

In August 2019 he published his first novel, Money Matters, in which an inexperienced young woman is persuaded to search for a woman who has disappeared and comes up against the powerful forces of big money, politics and a drug cartel. By the end of her search she has become a different person. This book is a Finalist in the 2019 Best American Fiction Awards. His second novel, Dangerous Conjectures, set in the Bay Area in the opening months of 2020 when the pandemic was spreading,, was published in 2021. His third novel, Only the Rich, is forthcoming in 2023.

Brian Finney is married and lives in Venice, California.