Product Description

On April 19, 1995 the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shook the nation, destroying our complacent sense of safety and sending a community into a tailspin of shock, grief, and bewilderment. Almost as difficult as the bombing itself has been the aftermath, its legacy for Oklahoma City and for the nation, and the struggle to recover from this unprecedented attack. In The Unfinished Bombing, Edward T. Linenthal explores the many ways Oklahomans and otherAmericans have tried to grapple with this catastrophe. Working with exclusive access to materials gathered by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Archive and drawing from over 150 personal interviews with family members of those murdered, survivors, rescuers, and many others. Linenthal looks at how the bombing threatened cherished ideas about American innocence, sparked national debate on how to respond to terrorism at home and abroad, and engendered a new "bereaved community" in Oklahoma Cityitself. Linenthal examines how different stories about the bombing were told through positive narratives of civic renewal and of religious redemption and more negative narratives of toxicity and trauma. He writes about the extraordinary bonds of affection that were created in the wake of the bombing, acts of kindness, empathy, and compassion that existed alongside the toxic legacy of the event. The Unfinished Bombing offers a compelling look at both the individual and the larger cultural consequences of one of the most searing events in recent American history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1459162 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-15
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .1 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
How do Americans, long innocent of such things, comprehend large-scale acts of domestic terrorism? How do they commemorate the victims of such deeds? In this unfortunately timely book, historian Edward T. Linenthal examines these questions as they were addressed by the people of Oklahoma City after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

In that attack, 168 men, women, and children died. Each left behind stunned, grieving relatives and loved ones; each left behind a personal history suddenly become part of the cultural and psychic property of the nation, as in the instance of Baylee Almon, whose corpse, cradled in the arms of a fireman, became an iconic image. As Linenthal writes in this careful work of cultural history, it fell on Oklahomans to process their grief in the wake of "violent mass death," no easy task, and to design and construct an appropriate memorial--which, after painful arguments over every detail, they did, and to stunning effect. Linenthal's thoughtful account summarizes some of the many lessons to be drawn from the Oklahoma City attack, lessons that, sadly, the world has had to learn anew. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
In the aftermath of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Americans wrestled with three incomprehensible facts: that it happened in the heartland, that its victims included small children and that it was perpetrated by fellow Americans. The media, government officials and individuals wondered if Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols represented the lunatic fringe or if they were symptoms of our historically violent society. Linenthal (Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields), professor of religion and American culture at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and an expert on American memorializing, brings tremendous sensitivity to his examination of the psychic consequences of the bombing, based on interviews with more than 150 direct participants, including mental health professionals, educators and clergy, and on exclusive access to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Archive. Critical of "the medicalization of grief," whereby grief is considered symptomatic of illness and therefore finite, he also faults public figures, including former President Clinton, for casting the 168 victims of the senseless tragedy as patriots who sacrificed their lives for America. Particularly moving is Linenthal's account of the construction and dedication of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which prompts many visitors to leave something personal (poems, flowers, crucifixes) at the site. Linenthal places the site at the pinnacle of "memorial hierarchy" because, by reminding us and imparting a lesson, it suggests that "all is not lost." Itself a kind of tribute, his study astutely explores the phenomena of memorializing, grieving and healing. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)Forecast: No book concerning the bombing has so comprehensively addressed the national psyche. This combination of psychological insight and cultural criticism, along with the hopeful assessment of a still-fresh tragedy, will attract a wide audience.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The Oklahoma City bombing happened in an instant, but its impact on U.S. society is still unfinished, according to Linenthal, a professor of religion and American culture and the author of two books dealing with "memorialization" (Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields and Preserving Memory: The Struggle To Create America's Holocaust Museum). He examines the aftermath by describing three differing narratives: a progressive narrative that "invites people to focus on possibility, opportunity, healing, rebuilding"; a "redemptive narrative" that emphasizes a "crisis of meaning" in a religious context; and a "toxic narrative" that accentuates the victims and their shattered families. Talking to religious, political, and social service leaders in Oklahoma as well as to the surviving families, Linenthal movingly relates the tortuous process of body identification, family notification, grief counseling, and burial ceremonies and then offers a painstakingly detailed account of the memorialization process and its culmination in the choice of a memorial design. He concludes on a hopeful note, explaining how the "bonds of affection" forged between the survivors and a variety of individuals and ethnic, religious, and national groups throughout the world continue to overshadow the event's toxic narrative. A revealing, empathetic analysis that fairly examines this tragic act of terror, the worst on U.S. soil until this September. Jack Forman, San Diego Mesa Coll. Lib., CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.