Rating: 
Summary: Warning: Read this before buying
Review: I bought this book because I wanted one book on September 11th that captured the emotion of that day. I am a high school teacher and I wanted a photographic record for my classes of the future. I was absolutely horrified and disgusted when I turned a page and was faced with a woman's severed leg lying in a road. There was no warning. No label of any kind. I'm just thankful I looked all the way through the pages before one of my students did. In disgust, I took the book right back to the store the very next day. All pictures I had seen from the tragic events of that day up until that point had been as tasteful as possible. We were not faced with what still haunts the memories of the firemen, paramedics, and policemen of New York City. No one should have had to see those horrors. And there it is in a coffee table book masquerading as a tribute. That woman was someone's daughter. Someone's sister. Someone's best friend. Someone's mother. Someone's wife. Do not give your money to these people who have no qualms about putting your loved one's shattered body on display for shock value.
Rating:
Summary: Disgusted
Review: I bought this book off this website as a keepsake to someday show my children the horror of what happened in America. I had previously bought another book off this site which was a fitting tribute. I received the "This is New York" book over the weekend and was both disgusted and traumatised by it. When I turned to the page and saw a woman's severed leg on a page I immediately broke down in tears. I was hysterical. To me, this is in NO WAY a tribute to what happened nor is it something you want to remember or have etched into your memory. Yes, I know it was the reality of the event but to photograph it for starters is SICK - it is in NO way artistic. To photograph somebodys severed limb is SICK, to put it in a book and sell it to unsuspecting customers with NO warning whatsoever that the content may disturb people is outright shameful!....P>The only thing that came out of my purchasing this book was leaving me traumatised for life by the picture I saw on that page. Do yourself a favour - DONT BUY THIS BOOK
Rating: 
Summary: No textbook will ever be as valuable in recounting 9/11.
Review: I first heard about this book on CNN, a few months after 9/11. I would stop at the book in the bookstore, and flip through. I could never get through more than 10 pages because it was too emotional. I finally bought the book, over two years later, and after a personal tragedy of my own, made myself get through it. The book is composed of so many photographs that are only a split-second in time, I found myself wondering what happened of so many of the subjects -- the man who picked up and read a random piece of paper out of thousands that had been blown out of the building, the woman on page 281 who reminded me all too much of the little girl running away from her napalm-bombed village in Vietnam in the famous photograph. I was not in New York on September 11. I was bartending, in a bar in Atlanta, where every television was on the news, and the packed restaurant sat silent. Though I still can't imagine what it was like after viewing this book, I have realized that September 11 was so many different experiences to so many people. Snapshots of many of those, even one similar to mine, are portrayed, and reinforces the magnitude and impact the events had on so many.
To get on my soapbox for a while, the "severed leg" picture -- not only was this picture justified in being included, as well as the pictures of persons jumping from the buildings, it was absolutely necessary in conveying the events to future generations. When we think of the holocaust, 6 million people is a difficult concept to grasp. But when we see pictures of mass graves, people in the ghettos, etc., we realize the value of each individual person, and how each of them didn't deserve their fate. Similar is my sentiment toward the more gruesome photographs. Their inclusion was absolutely necessary to convey the death of each individual person -- the pain they left behind, the family that will miss them, and how each person didn't simply disappear into a 8x11 flyer with their smiling picture in it.
One of the most powerful things in the book is the quote from which the title "Here is New York" was taken -- a segment written 50 years ago by E.B. White, ironically the author of "Charlotte's Web," the story so many of us read as children. It expresses his fear of how New York, in all of its glory and modernization, was incredibly vulnerable. The passage is incredibly prophetic.
When I have children, and they ask about these events, as I did when I became curious as to where my parents were when JFK was assassinated, I will show them this book.
If you can handle the impact of this book, I highly reccommend it. It will make you appreciate your loved ones more, it will make you remember what so many went through.
Rating:
Summary: No textbook will ever be as valuable in recounting 9/11.
Review: I first heard about this book on CNN, a few months after 9/11. I would stop at the book in the bookstore, and flip through. I could never get through more than 10 pages because it was too emotional. I finally bought the book, over two years later, and after a personal tragedy of my own, made myself get through it. The book is composed of so many photographs that are only a split-second in time, I found myself wondering what happened of so many of the subjects -- the man who picked up and read a random piece of paper out of thousands that had been blown out of the building, the woman on page 281 who reminded me all too much of the little girl running away from her napalm-bombed village in Vietnam in the famous photograph. I was not in New York on September 11. I was bartending, in a bar in Atlanta, where every television was on the news, and the packed restaurant sat silent. Though I still can't imagine what it was like after viewing this book, I have realized that September 11 was so many different experiences to so many people. Snapshots of many of those, even one similar to mine, are portrayed, and reinforces the magnitude and impact the events had on so many.
To get on my soapbox for a while, the "severed leg" picture -- not only was this picture justified in being included, as well as the pictures of persons jumping from the buildings, it was absolutely necessary in conveying the events to future generations. When we think of the holocaust, 6 million people is a difficult concept to grasp. But when we see pictures of mass graves, people in the ghettos, etc., we realize the value of each individual person, and how each of them didn't deserve their fate. Similar is my sentiment toward the more gruesome photographs. Their inclusion was absolutely necessary to convey the death of each individual person -- the pain they left behind, the family that will miss them, and how each person didn't simply disappear into a 8x11 flyer with their smiling picture in it.
One of the most powerful things in the book is the quote from which the title "Here is New York" was taken -- a segment written 50 years ago by E.B. White, ironically the author of "Charlotte's Web," the story so many of us read as children. It expresses his fear of how New York, in all of its glory and modernization, was incredibly vulnerable. The passage is incredibly prophetic.
When I have children, and they ask about these events, as I did when I became curious as to where my parents were when JFK was assassinated, I will show them this book.
If you can handle the impact of this book, I highly reccommend it. It will make you appreciate your loved ones more, it will make you remember what so many went through.
Rating:
Summary: Truly amazing
Review: I first saw this book at a Barns & Noble in Manhattan. I picked it up and started flipping through the pages and remembered what it was like in Manhattan that day. I was scared. I didn't realize the real horror of what went on just a few miles south of me. Every time I stepped outside and looked south, I just saw a beautiful blue sky. I was just west of the huge plume of smoke blowing east. Aside from the eerie quite on the streets, it could have been any other day.
This was a horrible day. These pictures reflect that perfectly. There are some graphic pictures you may not want to see, no one did. But they happened. And if you want to pretend they didn't, then perhaps this book isn't for you. If you want to grasp a little of what that day was really like for thousands of New Yorkers, then pick this book up.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: I first saw this book at a Barns & Noble in Manhattan. I picked it up and started flipping through the pages and remembered what it was like in Manhattan that day. I was scared. I didn't realize the real horror of what went on just a few miles south of me. Every time I stepped outside and looked south, I just saw a beautiful blue sky. I was just west of the huge plume of smoke blowing east. Aside from the eerie quite on the streets, it could have been any other day.
This was a horrible day. These pictures reflect that perfectly. There are some graphic pictures you may not want to see, no one did. But they happened. And if you want to pretend they didn't, then perhaps this book isn't for you. If you want to grasp a little of what that day was really like for thousands of New Yorkers, then pick this book up.
Rating:
Summary: well-balanced photographic memorial is pure art
Review: I had read a lot of exciting reviews about this photography collection in recent articles from the New York City media. Though I was unfortunately not able to see it in person at MOMA, nor have I yet to pay my respects at Ground Zero even, this companion book is as close as one can get to the real exhibit. "A Democracy of Photographs" is the perfect subtitle for describing the even-handed and straightforward ethos of this masterful collection. The photographs contained herein do not sensationalize, do not manufacture, or do not distort the event--they just present the facts of the tragedy and its aftermath with breathtaking camera work. I have rarely seen a lens capture the feeling of the people with such acumen ever before, save for the famous historical photographs of the National Geographic Society. This book represents more than photojournalism; it represents true art. Keep this book on the coffee table for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Truly amazing
Review: I just got this book and it is the most comprehensive book out there on September 11th of what happened that day. I went through it all in one day and after I was finished the thoughts and emotions that went through me on that day all came back. There are some pretty disturbing photographs in there so I would not recommend it for children or even for family members who lost someone in the trade center. I am sure you have read already about the leg photo but there is another one that i was as disturbed by. It was the one of the north tower by the impact hole where the plane went in. There are actually people standing in the hole looking down not sure what to do. I had never seen that picture before and I started crying thinking what could be going through those people's desperate minds. As the two year anniversary of this horrid day is quickly approaching, this book will be a testament to what we went through that day here in New York and should be in your library to always remember what we went through as a nation and overcame as a nation.
Rating:
Summary: A point of focus.
Review: I purchased the book from the Discovery Channel Store, and ended up with the display copy. The store manager told me to look through the book before I bought it to make sure it was in good condition, but he believed that it would be fine.... as people walked by and opened the book at random, they would become still, and gently, almost reverently, turn the pages. He said that it made no difference - age, race, gender. Everyone who looked at one picture stayed to linger over several - stopping, thinking, remembering, and perhaps saying a brief prayer. This book clearly illustrates the wide range of experiences brought about by the WTC.
Rating:
Summary: Sobering Reminder
Review: I understand that some people below were shocked at finding the photo of a severed leg in this collection. They all promptly seem to have demoted the book's worth to a single star. That doesn't seem an appropriate response to me. The book is almost 1000 pages long and there's a single photo showing what was unfortunately a very common site that day. I'm not suggesting that the publishers should have added more gory photos to the book. I'm saying that an honest portrayal of September 11th shouldn't shy away from accurately depicting the real horror of the event. What happened that day was horrendous, the acts, despicable, so let's not try to whitewash what happened by requesting a G-rated depiction. This book is stunning in the literal not the sensationalistic sense of the word. I read it cover to cover the day I got it and was provoked to remember the day (as we sometimes need to) all over again. As others have pointed out, this is not a sensationalist tome at all. No captions accompany the photo, neither are the names of photographers provided with each photo. No, the focus is entirely on the subject matter. If you don't want to remember, don't pick this book up. I'd argue, however, that for the sake of our children and our society, we all need to remember this event and remember it well.
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