University of Oregon Professor and journalist Peter Laufer interviewed people during three cross-country road trips in the days after 9/11, one in 2011 years later and the other in 2021. Those stories comprise his new book, "We Are All Americans," released on this 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.
Courtesy of Peter Laufer
For adults of a certain age, the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 were a defining event, just as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were for earlier generations. The geopolitical world was forever altered, along with how many Americans thought about the country’s place in the world, and even how they thought about their own identity as citizens.
Longtime journalist and University of Oregon professor Peter Laufer documents all of this in his new book, “We Are All Americans.” It’s a series of interview excerpts, photos and reflections from the people he talked with on three separate cross-country road trips: one just days after 9/11, another in 2011, and the last in 2021. We talk with Laufer about what he learned, and we take your calls to hear your memories and reflections about this day in history, 25 years later.
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