The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States

The 9/11 Commission Report is a comprehensive and alarming piece of nonfiction that provides an in-depth look at one of the biggest intelligence failures in history.

This authorized edition of the Commission's final report traces the roots of al-Qaeda's strategies, follows the emergence of the 19 hijackers, and details the missed opportunities of law enforcement officials to avert disaster.

The report also calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the intelligence-gathering operation and recommends the creation of a post for a single National Security Director.

With a grave resolve that perfectly balances the enormous stakes with the necessity of delving into minutiae, this historic book reads like a Shakespearean drama, unspooling paragraph after paragraph dramatizing the events leading up to the horrific attacks on the United States.

The authors, with grim but charged dispassion, provide an implied narrator that sticks as close as possible to how real people made real decisions, and when stymied in considering a factor or set of factors, is willing to say so.

This multi-author document produces an absolutely compelling narrative intelligence, one with clarity, a sense of shared mission, and an overriding desire to do something about the situation.

The book's implied narrator never forgets that they are communicating in a medium that has a lot of stylistic resources for holding one's attention, drawing liberally on the most tried and true.

Given what hangs in the balance, it is not a stretch to compare this document to The Federalist Papers, in the sense that the book is designed to foster the debate by which the country will reimagine itself through its bureaucracy.