Chapter 1. The World Trade Center and Global Crisis: Some Critical Perspectives
Bruce Kapferer

Chapter 2. An Empire of a Certain Kind
Marshall Sahlins

Chapter 3. September 11th and After
Keith Hart

Chapter 4. From Nine-Eleven to Seven-Eleven: The Poverty of Interpretation
Jonathan Friedman

Chapter 5. Ground Zero Point One: On the Cinematics of History
Allen Feldman

Chapter 6. Humanitarianism, Terror and the Transnational Border
Michael Humphrey

Chapter 7. Arab Americans and the Criminalization of Dissent
Ibrahim Aoude

Chapter 8. "My Son is a Fanatic" or How to Have Things Both Ways in a Heritage Debate
Michael Rowlands

Chapter 9. Just Wars, Civilisation and Empire in Postmodernity: Perspectives from South of the Rio Grande
John Gledhill

Chapter 10. September 11 and October 7: From Human Tragedy to Power Politics
Leif Manger

Chapter 11. The New Leviathan and the Crisis of Criticism in the Social Sciences
Bruce Kapferer

Notes on Contributors

Numerous humanly caused destructions of just the last hundred years dwarf the World Trade Center disaster, and the attention still addressed to it may over the next few years appear disproportionate. But the significance of events is always determined by the social, political, and cultural forces that are articulated through a particular event. The attack of 9/11 was an event waiting to happen, and when it did occur the even itself became a catalyst and impetus for the changing and redirection of global realities. This volume offers provocative assessments of the reaction to the event from a variety of perspectives that will no doubt stimulate the debate on the meaning and consequences of 9/11.

Bruce Kapferer is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has held academic positions in Zambia, Manchester, Adelaide, London, and Queensland and carried out extensive fieldwork in Zambia, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, and South Africa.