September 11, 2001

by Max Frankel, Poynter Institute for Media Studies

On Tuesday September 11, our world changed forever. The United States was attacked by an unknown terrorist organization. Word of this attack spread instantaneously around the world. Billions of people woke up on September 12 to find that the front page of their local newspaper was devoted to the tragedy of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

September 11, 2001 is a collection of 150 front pages of major newspapers throughout the world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, Terrorism

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2001

About the author

Max Frankel was an American journalist who was executive editor of The New York Times from 1986 to 1994.

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

What this is: Roughly 150 pages of photos, each page having a color photo of a newspaper front page on September 12, 2001. Not just American newspapers either, numerous countries are shown.

Why I was interested? I'm a native New Yorker, I was overseas (in the military) in Japan when 9/11 occurred. Being so busy with the work events that followed I was not able to, at the time, to track how the events were being reported to the world. This is me finally playing catch up.

Thoughts? My favorite front page writing was "The Atlanta Constitution" (Georgia). It had a short editor note, of sorts.

The most poignant headline and accompanying photo- the College Heights Herald Extra (Kentucky).

Most bothersome front page? A Mexico city newspaper that showed a zoomed in photo of roughly 2 dozen persons trapped at the broken windows of one of the world trade center towers, trying to get air and safety from the smoke and fire. Not a single one of them survived.

This was a quick read, didn't take more than an hour to thumb through. Many newspapers used the same photos (those with AP subscriptions in general). Glad I read this.

[chucklesthescot · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is exactly what it says on the tin, allowing the reader to see how each country reported the disaster the following day and which front page photo they chose to use.

[Chris O'Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a compilation of newspaper front pages from editions published the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks (though a handful of them were actually published the same day). The bulk are from local American outlets, but some national and international organisations are also included. Many of the front pages are visually striking, illustrated with stunning images captured by various professional photographers from agencies such as the Associated Press.

For the vast majority of entries, the print of the articles is legible, so it was interesting to retrospectively read through them (at least those written in English, which is the only language I understand). Comparisons to Pearl Harbor were abound, and there were also lots of speculation on worldwide economic recessions, rising energy prices, and even reports of panic buying at local gas stations. In the case of the local papers, many of them published the same handful of Associated Press reports.

There were a few articles, particularly from the Wall Street Journal, for which I'm going to go and try and obtain the full text.

Overall, I'm glad I spent the time going through it and I'm glad to have the book in my collection.

[MKF]

An interesting look at a few of the front cover pages of newspapers scattered across the country and world. It only takes a few pages to realize that almost all of them have the same photos and even the same articles.

[Ellison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Features a collection of newspaper front pages mostly from the United States in alphabetical order. Eventually the headlines begin to repeat and the same photo appears repeatedly. A few papers from around the globe appear, none from the area accused of the attacks which is too bad.