I ended my post-Civil War U.S. survey course with a provocation. The discussion began with a meditation on the so-called “War on Terror” as a framework for the history of the last 17-18 years. While the history of these times, this most recent generation, is still being worked out, I proposed to my students that 9/11 acts as a centripetal force in narratives of recent U.S. history. This proposition is unscientific, of course—resting only on a preponderance of journalistic anecdata. First drafts of our recent history seem to point to 9/11 as the central act of the most recent generation. Read more