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 enlarge | Author: Lynn Spencer
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $11.00 (42%)
New (33) Used (13) from $15.00
Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 15437
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1416559256
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9781416559252
ASIN: 1416559256
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Phenominal! September 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a must-read for those who want to know how that awful day unfolded. Gut-wrenching and spellbinding, you'll find yourself shouting warnings to the book's characters in a fruitless effort to avoid the obvious outcome. If you can possibly manage to get through this book in more than one sitting then you have nerves of steel.
I gave it only 4 stars simply because of the complex language of aviation that is used through-out the book. It makes sense because that is the subject and place of the events however most readers will probably find it rather confusing and slow-going in places. Luckily, I was born into aviation so quickly adapted to the lingo but others may not.
 Articulate but confusing tale of a confusing day September 28, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book does a good job of telling the basic story of the confusion that reigned in the air on 9/11. It does a great job of telling how air traffic controllers had no real idea of which planes were hijacked and which ones were not. It also is very interesting to read the steps that were considered and sometimes taken by long haul flights over the Pacific to forestall any takeovers of their plans. The aspects dealing with Canadian flights is also very interesting to read.
The book is extremely weak as it trys to portray the military pilots as significant contributors for 9/11. I say this with no ill will but the military was at best a spectator to these events and the author tries to portray them as hero's who rushed in and saved the day and prevented it from being worse. Yet that doesn't really hold water. It's too bad because it takes away from the real hero's who actions deserve and are worthy of praise and mention.
Air Traffic Controllers September 22, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Touching History is a suspenseful book. The author, Lynn Spencer, writes mostly from the perspective of the air traffic controllers. She spends many hours interviewing the controllers, and summarizing the many volumes of The 9/11 Commission Reports, to write her detailed book. I learned many details about 9/11, and fortunately the book was nonpartisan,as no one was blamed for the tragic events of that day.
The first plane hijacked is American Airlines Flight 11. It is off their radar screen and the plane is not in radio contact. CNN reports that a small plane has hit one of the Twin Towers, so they wrongly assume that it is not their plane. When another plane goes off course, United Airlines Flight 175, they lose radio contact. At first, they get Flight 11 mixed up with Flight 175.
The pilots are asking for guidance from the control tower, but at first, the air traffic controllers are ignoring them, because they busy trying to deal with the missing planes.
Eventually the air traffic controllers realize that their planes have been hijacked, but they do not know how many planes have been hijacked.
The Air National Guard scramble their jets and thereby, create sonic blooms over our cities. However, the pilots are not sure of their mission, or where it is. They fly towards the open sea of the Atlantic, New York City, and towards Washington D.C. Some of the pilots almost run out of fuel. Eventually they find something to do. They escort planes that are forced to land. They follow United flight 93 before it goes out of view and crashes.
When our air space is closed, there is a big problem. There are hundreds of flights and they all need to land somewhere. Fortunately, our friends, the Canadians, allow us into their air space so we can land the planes.
This is all detailed in the book.
The author explains why they are the rumors about Flight 93 being shot down. Also interesting is in learning about Untied Flight 23, JFK-Los Angeles. This flight was order back to the gate before take off. This is fortunate as there were four young Arabs men in first class. Were these Arabs men identified and questioned by the FBI?
My only criticism of the book was that sometimes it was hard to follow. I had to refer to The 9/11 Commission Report Book to clarify the chain of events. A time line and charts would have made Touching History less confusing. I did not want to spend a few hours sorting it out. Because of the confusion, I am giving this book 4 stars. Five stars to the air traffic controllers, and the Air Force National Guard, who did their best under horrible conditions.
 This book is not truthful September 14, 2008
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
If you check out the op-ed article in the New York Times of 9-14-08, you can read a carefully written article about this book, and how untrue accounts are being passed off as truth. It is shameful that the facts, as carefully established by the 9-11 commission, are ignored in the frenzy to sell a book with sensationalism. Self serving accounts by politicians and military flacks can not change the fact that we were not prepared for this attack, and except for the firefighters in New York, and the passengers on flight 93, there are very few heroes here, including the self proclaimed heroes in this book.
Not quite accurate September 14, 2008
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Three members of the 9-11 commission today write that this book has accounts that are just not true. The fighter pilon might have been brave, but he took off 20 minutes after the wreckage of Flight 93 was located. They found many other errors, not malicious, but based on 'heroic embellishment". 'The afterword to "Touching History" was written by General Arnold, despite his having been forced to retract his testimony to the 9/11 commission. ("I was wrong," he told the panel at its final hearing. "I was wrong.")'. [...]
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