What Changed When Everything Changed: 9/11 and the Making of National Identity

393 Pages·2013·1.344 MB·English

by  Joseph Margulies

what changed when everything changed
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joseph margulies
What Changed
When Everything
Changed
9/11 and the making
of national identity
new haven & london
Copyright © 2013 by Joseph Margulies.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107
and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public
press), without written permission from the publishers.
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Set in Scala and Scala Sans types by Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Margulies, Joseph.
What changed when everything changed : 9/11 and the making
of national identity / Joseph Margulies.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-17655-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. National characteristics,
American. 2. Nationalism—United States. 3. September 11 Terrorist
Attacks, 2001—Influence. 4. Terrorism—United States—Prevention—
Social aspects. 5. United States—History—21st century. I. Title.
E169.1.M264 2013
973.93—dc23
2012049865
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Sid Tarrow
and CVW
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1 “What the United States of America Is All About at Our Core” 1
part one: making national identity
2 “The Ceaseless Striving to Live Out Our True Creed” 17
3 The Dark Side of the Creed 42
part two: history makes no sharp turns
4 Race and Religion in National Identity 65
5 The Punitive Turn 91
viii CONTENTS
part three: preservation and transformation
6 “A Fight for Our Principles” 117
7 “We Need to Bring the News to People” 134
8 “A War for the Survival of America” 155
9 “Think the Unthinkable” 183
10 “Can You Think of Anything More Un-American?” 206
11 “Must We Sell Our Birthright?” 230
12 The Paradox of the Obama Era 259
13 All Will Be as It Ought to Be 286
Notes 293
Permissions 358
Index 359
PREFACE
my head is filled with very simple questions. Some people describe
questions like these as unwelcome distractions. “It was nagging at me,” we
might hear someone say, as though she were dealing with a toddler tugging
at her sleeve in the grocery store. But my questions don’t nag at all. They
are my constant companions. They sit with me at coffee shops, join me for
lunch, wait patiently while I tend to other matters, and always seem awake
when I am. By and large, they provide delightful company, and all they ask
in return is that I try to answer them.
This book is my attempt to do right by two such questions, both of which
have been with me for more than a decade. First, I wanted to know what
is meant by the insistence that the attacks of September 11 “changed every-
thing.” It was impossible to sort this out in the first years after 9/11. When
a tsunami hits, we wait until the water recedes before trying to assess the
damage. Now, with the benefit of some time and perspective, we can begin
the more sober task of figuring out what September 11 has meant to na-
tional identity.
One often hears that to be an American means to believe in a small clus-
ter of shared ideals. “There is no American race,” George W. Bush often
said. “There’s only an American creed.” This creed has been described in
different ways, but at its core it has always been understood to mean an at-
tachment to liberty, equality, limited government, the rule of law, and the
dignity of the individual, all of which are embedded within a commitment
ix