This week the New York Times is running a series of forums on the making of the 9/11 museum, which I wrote about in Sunday’s paper. Today, David Blight, a professor of history at Yale University, Wilfred McClay, a historian at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, Anthony Gardner, the director of a museum and the executive director of the September 11th Education Trust, and Bill Braniff, executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at the University of Maryland discuss: What do you think is essential for people to understand about the history leading up to Sept. 11?
Click on the forum and join the debate.
I think the most important thing is to define what terrorism actually is. That sounds obvious, I know, but it’s amazing how many people would not be able to clearly define ‘terrorism’ if asked to do so.
This is important because how can we hope to prevent future acts of terrorism if we don’t even fully understand what terrorism is ourselves?