A young writer in New York City began a very special journey immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. In the spirit of Studs Terkel and the Roosevelt Administration’s WPA Slave Narratives, Damon DiMarco set about constructing a comprehensive oral history of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The result was Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11, a living time capsule of the day that forever changed America in the words of the people who were there.

“Arguably the most successful attempt at capturing the enormity of the events of 9/11, Damon DiMarco’s sprawling oral history runs a wide gamut of testimony from survivors, responders, witnesses and people whose lives were forever altered by the attacks. The human stories are presented with raw candor a thousand times more affecting than any cold statistic offered by a commission . . . ‘Tower Stories’ is a riveting and disarmingly emotional read.”

– NBC’s The Today Show, Books

“I hope this book remains in print for a very long time to come, because everyone should read it. Our children should read it. With regard to 9/11, we – as a people -cannot allow a myth to take root. We must ground ourselves in our pain if we have any hope of moving forward. And move forward we must.”

– Tom Kean, Chairman of the 9/11 Commission (from the foreword to Tower Stories.)

A year and a half after his mission began, DiMarco’s list of interviews spanned a staggeringly broad cross-section of participants in September 11th. Survivors of the Towers. Police. Firefighters. Paramedics. Volunteers. Their accounts were published as:

“The only widely available oral history of 9/11 from the perspective of New Yorkers . . . monumental work . . .  In the weeks following the World Trade Center attack, DiMarco, in the tradition of Studs Terkel, wandered Manhattan collecting the stories of Gothamites who survived the collapse of the the towers, came to help or simply bore witness-whether from elsewhere in they city, across the country or overseas. . . DiMarco’s contribution to the memory of that horrific day is enormous; the testimonies collected here form an amazing, one-of-a-kind account.”

– STAR REVIEW from Publishers Weekly

 

Author Damon DiMarco on 

“How it Was: Voices of 9/11” by 

The National Geographic Channel

 

Click here to read the Foreword by Tom Kean, Chairman of the Independent 9/11 Commission.

Click here to read the Introduction by the Author.