I'm thoroughly engrossed in Susan Faludi's highly readable and entertaining book "The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America".

Below is an outline and a chapter link.

Video of a talk of the book from the Google Woman's Authors Forum on Sept. 11, 2011.(aprox. 50 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q_j82L_XSo


Book Overview:
In this, the most original examination of post-9/11 America, Susan Faludi shines a light on the country's psychological response to the attacks on that terrible day. Turning her laser-sharp observational powers on the media, popular culture, and political life, Faludi unearths a barely acknowledged but bedrock societal drama shot through with baffling contradictions. Why, she asks, did an assault on American global dominance provoke an almost hysterical summons to restore "traditional" manhood, marriage, and maternity? Why did our media react as if the hijackers had targeted not a commercial and military edifice but the family home and nursery? Why did an attack fueled by hatred of Western emancipation lead to a regressive fixation on Doris Day womanhood and John Wayne masculinity, with trembling-lipped "security moms," swaggering presidential gunslingers, and the "rescue" of a female soldier compulsively recast as a "helpless little girl"? [.....]




Chapter Excerpt
http://www.susanfaludi.com/terror-dream-chapter.html

Susan Faludi website
http://www.susanfaludi.com/index.html