cover image History and September 11th

History and September 11th

. Temple University Press, $22.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-1-59213-203-4

This collection of essays, complete with primary sources, by noted scholars in the fields of terrorism, the Middle East, fundamentalist religious movements, anti-Americanism and foreign relations, attempts to provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the factors leading up to the terror attacks on September 11. Each essayist focuses on a distinct part of the puzzle, ranging from the United States' presence in Afghanistan in the 1940s and the results of Cold War patriotism to a 200-year history of Arab-American relations and the notion of American values and nationalism. Collectively,""the authors comment on the dangers of forging or analyzing policy without keen awareness of history, and they tell cautionary tales involving critical moments in the past,"" all the while rejecting the""sweeping panoramas that portray an age-old 'clash of civilization' between Islam and the West,"" writes editor Meyerowitz, a professor of history at Indiana University and editor of the Journal of American History. 19 b&w illus., 2 maps.