Citation

Albright K, Abrams CB, Panofsky AL. Am. Behav. Sci. 2009; 53(1): 80-98.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0002764209338787

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In contrast to the audience in most of the world, New Yorkers experienced the events of 9/11 as more than symbolic images. Indeed, the experiential and practical foundations of New Yorkers’ cultural existences were transformed in the wake of 9/11, at least temporarily. The weeks following the crisis were spent coming to terms with what happened; making meaning in practical, interpersonal, and historico-political terms; and interpreting and manipulating a new flood of experiences and practices made possible by the newly problematic order of daily life. This article documents the significant, though now largely forgotten, shifts in the cultural experience of living in New York City to trace the eventual construction of "normalcy" and its attendant hegemonic and political meanings.