Betting on America: Why the U.S. Can be Stronger After September 11

Pearl Harbor, the Civil War, 9/11: national shock, national mobilization, then national transformation.

-- In the wake of 9/11: a realistic, optimistic vision of America's future.

-- Answers to the most important questions Americans are asking themselves right now.

-- Why it happened, and what we must do next -- as individuals and together.

The immediate and horrible shock of 9/11 has passed, but Americans are still asking fundamental questions about what the terrorist attacks will mean to their future. In Betting on America, the authors place the events of 9/11 in the perspective of America's history, offering a thoughtful, realistic, and ultimately optimistic vision of America's new future. The authors find in American history one lesson, repeated again and again: when we are challenged, we find deeper strength and better leadership than we ever expected, and take our country to a better place than we ever thought possible. James W. Cortada and Ed Wakin place the events of 9/11 in deep historical context, and teach the lessons that America's history has to offer us right now. They remind us of moments like Pearl Harbor and Fort Sumter: the immediate traumas, the national mobilizations that followed them, and the ways in which these events transformed the nation -- ultimately, for the better. He sheds new light on the questions that are agonizing Americans now: Will we ever feel safe again? Will we ever regain the freedoms we're surrendering? Why did this happen, and what do the reasons tell us about how we must respond? When we look at the changes that 9/11 has wrought, what new opportunities can we find -- as individuals, and as citizens?