Until the Fires Stopped Burning: 9/11 and New York City in the Words and Experiences of Survivors and Witnesses

Charles B. Strozier, a historian and psychoanalyst, is professor of history at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, where he is also the founding director of its Center on Terrorism. He is the author or editor of twelve books on the psychological and historical aspects of contemporary violence and what it means to survive, the psychology of fundamentalism, self psychology and psychoanalysis, and themes in American history. These include the Pulitzer-nominated biography, Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst; a coedited volume, The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and History; and a single-authored psychological study of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's Quest for Union. His blog building on the themes of Until the Fires Stopped Burning can be found at www.911aftertenyears.com.

This is the only work on 9/11 to describe people's experiences in depth while at the same time providing a broad sense of the human impact of the whole event. -- Robert Lifton, author of Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima Charles B. Strozier has crafted a unique and powerful blend of shattering personal narratives and thoughtful analysis. Anyone who wonders what 9/11 was like for those who experienced it up close will find Strozier's work the necessary reference. No other author possesses his blend of psychological insight, cultural and historical perspective, and narrative fluency. The intimately personal and profoundly historical mingle to produce a profound understanding of the human and cultural impact of the day America changed forever. -- James W. Jones, author of Blood That Cries Out from the Earth: The Psychology of Religious Terrorism This book offers a way of understanding--of taking measure, of coming to terms with--a thing that does not lend itself to any other kind of telling. That's why it is special. It issues from a richly layered mind. -- Kai Erikson, author of A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community Strozier has given us a whole, complex view of 9/11 in a way no other book has. He blends historical, clinical, cultural, and personal perspectives in order to conceptualize how and why 9/11 changed American history. It is a book every American should read. -- Peter Balakian, author of Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir The atrocity of 9/11 did not burn and bury as many as the Holocaust, nor did it hit with the massive force of Hiroshima's black rain and wind, but Until the Fires Stopped Burning shows how these two horrors took part to produce a psychological and political tsunami that shook America to its core and continues to change the world. In the spirit of John Hersey's Hiroshima and Elie Weisel's Night, but with the rigor of a scientist, historian, and psychotherapist, Strozier tells a gripping and honest tale. The