After: How America Confronted The September 12 Era
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As advertised, this book gives the reader a detailed look at the policy decisions that followed the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Brill attempts to go further, expounding in several places on his thesis that America works, and works well, because competing players (read: special interests) make their cases (read: pay lobbyists to wine and dine) to decision-makers (read: politicians), who, armed with the facts, generally get things right. Brill suggests that the events following 9/11 are a representative case study of this theory. He fails to convince. Sept. 11 was, we all know, unique, and Brill does not acknowledge that thousands of decisions, many transparently biased, are made annually that affect us all but, for a variety of reasons, only one side usually gets access to the decision makers. Thus, while this book gets credit for being thought provoking, it ultimately dissapoints due to its thin and poorly supported thesis.