After 9/11: Solutions for a Saner World

I came upon After 9/11 from a link after being thoroughly disappointed by the brief work by Noam Chomsky on September 11th. Chomsky's line has become predictable and overplayed - the lack of US morality in foreign policy, the mainstream media blackout of issues, the tyranny of capitalism, and so on. Books like After 9/11 are a breath of fresh air when compared to the dogma that dominates most widely-published left intellectuals.After 9/11 covers a whole spectrum of issues related to the tragedy , going on the traditional political and economic analysis of the causes of the terrorist attacks. There are articles covering issues like labor, activism, commercialized patriotismŠeven hip-hop and post-traumatic sex!This is a refreshing work, and I only wish it was more visible in the consciousness of Americans (Has anyone seen this title in bookstores).

I found After 9/11 to be a standout work that differs from most 9-11 related books on shelves today. While it seems that many of these works were rushed to print in a quick response to the tragedies, After 9/11 is the most balanced work that I have seen in the body of September 11th publications.After 9/11 is a compilation of articles and essays from many of the familiar faces of left-of-center commentary - Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Hightower, Arianna Huffington, and so forth. The book, however, features a rich mix of opinions not just from talking heads, but from intelligensia (Edward Said, Michael Klare, Stephen Zunes), government officials (Congresswoman Barbara Lee, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and even a Navy Vice Admiral), and activists. The result is a blend of opinions that isn't as didactic and prescriptive as many of the works from the left. After 9/11 is broken into three intuitive sections - What Has Changed, How Did We Get Here, and Solutions - and it really succeeds where others have failed in trying to voice possible solutions that are workable for this complex debacle. I found it a refreshing collection of opinions that have been too often marginalized by the mainstream media.This book covers a broad range of issues, as the back cover indicates -- national security, civil liberties, our economy, and our view of ourselves and the rest of the world. It is clearly intended for an American audience, for readers who are feeling like they aren't getting the full story from mainstream media outlets.Most of the pieces are short and concise, having been published previously as articles in various sources. The editors of this work really did a great job in compiling these works. Of particular interest to me were the pieces by John Tirman ("Unintended Consequences"), Danny Schechter ("The Global News We Ignore Can Be Fatal"), and a touching human interest story by Tamim Ansary imploring the US not to bomb Afghanistan ("The Taliban: An Afghan-American Speaks").While I had never heard of the publisher before, I have to say I was rather impressed by the newscoverage on Alternet's website... A good bet for any devotee of NPR or PBS.