Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center (review)

September 11 abruptly and dramatically changed our world forever. Quite apart from the tremendous loss of life on that day, the terrorist attacks took away a sense of security, even invulnerability from many Americans, not just those wholive in New York or who lost friends and family members. Those feelings belong in our past. Twin Towers offers a chance to revisit that past. In an accessible style, with citations tucked discretely into the endnotes, Angus Gillespie's book describes the conception, construction, and life of this exceptional building. He relates the political battles that surrounded the project and the engineering problems that were overcome to build the towers. In the course of this account he introduces the bureaucrats, architects, engineers, construction workers, and others who were responsible for this achievement. It is very much a narrative in praise of American accomplishment, exuding a cheerful optimism, a kind of innocence that had no inkling of what was to come. This innocence is not merely Gillespie's, but in retrospect it seems to characterize all of us.

The destruction of the World Trade Center removes any doubts about the structure's symbolic significance, both for Americans and the rest of the world. Whatever its various meanings-hope for a better life; icon of capitalist oppression; sign of an evil infidel empire-the power of this symbol cannot be denied. Gillespie's work reinforces just how much symbols do matter. Additionally, Gillespie contrasts in chapters 4 and 5 the near-universal panning that the building received from architectural critics with its widespread popular acceptance as an icon for New York City. He sees signs of this popular acceptance in the ubiquity of the building in postcards, movies, advertising backdrops, and the like. In a striking aside, he notes that postcards of the building are often found among the meager possessions of illegal immigrants to this country: "There have been persistent reports and rumors of immigration officials who find people, with no official paper, clinging to a postcard of the World Trade Center as a symbol for their hopes for a better world" (p. 138). For me, these words touch on a fascinating topic for further research: Who told these stories? Were the rumors true, or did American citizens project this symbolism onto illegal aliens? Unfortunately, Gillespie does not answer these questions, neither giving a source for these stories, nor attempting to track them to their sources.

Reading the final chapter of the book, "A Day in the Life," just a few weeks after September 11 was a haunting experience. Here Gillespie presents a montage of the security guards, stockbrokers, window washers, tourists, bartenders, and others who worked in the World Trade Center. We are introduced to several of them by name and "hear" their voices. One cannot read their words without being struck by the realization that many of these people may be among the dead from the attack. We could not have a starker proof of the good that folklorists do when they describe and record the voices of ordinary people. Disaster is impersonal, but tragedy happens to people you know. By introducing some of the individuals who now might be victims, the book personalizes the disaster for the rest of us.

Because it was written before September 11, Gillespie's book depicts these lives without the black ribbon framing all such accounts that have appeared since the attack. In the aftermath, folklorists are collecting stories about what happened, but we can be grateful that a folklorist was present to record the life of the World Trade Center while it was still an ordinary part of daily life, and in so doing, save it from being utterly lost. The last words of the book sum up both the optimism and the tragedy of the twin towers: "At about four in the morning, the delivery trucks start to arrive with fresh food and...