Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons^™

The Battle Over Memory: The Contestations Of Public And Familial Narratives In Remembering 9/11, Cheng-Yen Wu

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

On September 11, 2001, the four plane crashes marked the three sites of trauma that, to this day, sit in the heart of United States history. The paper examines the contested and often conflicting public and familial narratives at sites of memory and the recurring themes behind commemoration narratives. Drawing on newsletter articles and seven interviews with members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and The Peace Abbey, the paper concludes that national and public remembrances of 9/11 adopted a top-down approach that has repressed familial remembrances in three main ways: by glorifying the victims, co-opting the version told …