American Ground

"The most thoughtful and original [9-11] book to appear so far is American Ground, William Langewiesche's meticulous description of the rescue effort at Ground Zero and the subsequent excavation of the 1.8 million tons of debris at the literal and emotional heart of this calamity. Langewiesche was granted almost unlimited access to the site and the rescue staff, and he made the most of the privilege."—Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"An extraordinary story . . . Langewiesche . . . was the only reporter granted total access to Ground Zero . . . He spent nine months there and emerged to write American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center . . . It is an amazing piece of journalism, full of colorful characters and astonishing scenes."—The Washington Post

"Unlike much of the writing about ground zero, there is a freshness of perspective in [these] sentences, owing largely to Langewiesche's determination to approach September 11 not as the one great cataclysm of American history but as just another part, albeit a big one, of the long history of human struggle, and of man's attempt to impose order on disorder . . . American Ground demonstrates that the view from [Ground Zero] is useful in many respects. It has allowed Langewiesche to remove the events of September 11 from their sentimental and harrowing contexts and turn it into a story in which tragedy yields to ingenuity and triumph."—Michael Tomasky, The New York Review of Books

"It's clear that the real accomplishment of Langewiesche wasn't his unrestricted access to the scene. Rather it is the craft with which he constructs his saga of deconstruction . . . Langewiesche has captured it with a succinct richness that probably can't be equaled."—John King, San Francisco Chronicle

"Says more about our essential character than a thousand maudlin tributes."—Boris Kachka, New York

"The best and freshest journalism, and the one book to read, if you're only reading one . . . Tremendous detail on every angle, tersely and poetically written . . . Worth the wait."—Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press

'While much has been made of Langewiesches wide-ranging and rare access to the devastated site near Wall Street, what distinguishes his account is its pure journalism. This . . . kind of clear-eyed reporting and strong writing . . . seems fresh and original today because its so seldom that we encounter reporting at its most elemental . . . extraordinary events demand not only extraordinary responses, which was the case at the WTC site, but also an objective witness who can testify with the facts, not prejudice. That kind of testimony is Langewiesche's singular accomplishment."—Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"By far the best of the post-9/11 books . . . A truly extraordinary work of original reporting in which diligent gathering of facts was accompanied by intelligent and informed reflection on their meaning."—Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times

"Remarkable . . . Teeming with [both] paradoxes and ironies, American Ground accomplishes the rare feat of restoring the unimaginable trauma to the events of Sept. 11 and presenting the everyday heroism of those who cleared the site of its rubble."—Adam Bresnick, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"One of the most compelling, dramatic, and uplifting pieces of writing you are likely ever to read . . . American Ground will make you proud of the ground you walk on."—Kevin Horrigan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Keenly observe[d] . . . In the face of byzantine intrigue, ever-present danger, and constant reminders of unfathomable horror, [Langewiesche] maintains his investigative instincts, his composure, and above all the sense of dignity without which we could not bear to hear the story again."—Amanda Heller, The Boston Globe

"For all the frenzied cultural effort that goes into manufacturing sentimentalized images from raw truth and fact, it always turns out that that and tact are more interesting, and often even more inspiring. And so it is with the story of the World Trade Center sites recovery after the terror and destruction of Sept. 11, 2001. [Langewiesche] embraced the unsavory, all-too-human aspects of his story as sympathetically as the genuinely heroic, and he is reluctant to judge any of his subjects harshly."—Rick Harmon, The Oregonian

"Many Sept. 11 books and articles have attempted to re-create the horror of that day and its aftermath—the detail of Langewiesche's account, drawn from months of 18-hour days at the site, trumps them all."—Sharyn Wizda Vane, Austin American-Statesman

"This is a genuinely monumental story, told without melodrama, an intimate depiction of ordinary Americans reacting to grand-scale tragedy."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)