Marking 25 years since Sept. 11 with 'All the Presidents' Wars' and 'Scattered Steel'

The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks highlights the long-term transformation of American governance and collective memory. Journalist Peter Bergen, in *All the Presidents' Wars*, argues that the post-9/11 era fostered an "imperial presidency," where executive power expanded to bypass Congress in military decision-making, as seen in the Iraq War and the Libya intervention. Simultaneously, the physical legacy of the attacks persists through salvaged World Trade Center steel, which now serves as a modern relic in communities nationwide. Co-author Sam Holleran, in *Scattered Steel*, examines how these artifacts function as focal points for complex, lingering grief, bridging the gap for generations removed from the original event. These memorials, while avoiding the commercialization seen with the Berlin Wall, provide a tangible connection to the past, grounding abstract national trauma in localized, physical spaces.