Scribble at 2021-05-06 13:19:53 Last modified: 2021-05-06 13:20:45
In Power at Ground Zero, Lynne Sagalyn offers the definitive account of one of the greatest reconstruction projects in modern world history. Sagalyn is America's most eminent scholar of major urban reconstruction projects, and this is the culmination of over a decade of research. Both epic in scope and granular in detail, this is at base a classic New York story. Sagalyn has an extraordinary command over all of the actors and moving parts involved in the drama: the long parade of New York and New Jersey governors involved in the project, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, various Port Authority leaders, the ubiquitous real estate magnate Larry Silverstein, and architectural superstars like Santiago Calatrava and Daniel Libeskind. As she shows, political competition at the local, state, regional, and federal level along with vast sums of money drove every aspect of the planning process. But the reconstruction project was always about more than complex real estate deals and jockeying among local politicians. The symbolism of the reconstruction extended far beyond New York and was freighted with the twin tasks of symbolizing American resilience and projecting American power. As a result, every aspect was contested. As Sagalyn points out, while modern city building is often dismissed as cold-hearted and detached from meaning, the opposite was true at Ground Zero. Virtually every action was infused with symbolic significance and needed to be debated. The emotional dimension of 9/11 made this large-scale rebuilding effort unique; it supercharged the complexity of the rebuilding process with both sanctity and a truly unique politics. Covering all of this and more, Power at Ground Zero is sure to stand as the most important book ever written on the aftermath of arguably the most significant isolated event in the post-Cold War era.
9/11のテロで崩壊した地域（「グラウンド・ゼロ」）の復興に関する900ページに近い大部のリポートだ。しかし、復興に関わる行政などの組織が編纂したわけではなく、コロムビア大学のリン・サガリン氏が一人で書いたものだ。それが、アマゾンで340円という破格の値段で販売されていたので手に入れた。実際に届くと、大きさも厚みも OALD くらいだから、文字通り「辞書みたいな本」である。Oxford U.P. から出ているのだけれど、あいかわらず大手の大学出版局がもつリソースの大きさを感じさせる一冊だ。日本の出版社だと、山本某とか小熊某とか大澤某のように大部の本を書くだけが取り柄みたいな人々の著作をもったいぶって宣伝するくらいが関の山だが、海外ではこれくらいの本が次々と出版されている。