Historians debate Sept. 11's place in history
From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the Kennedy assassination, comparisons of September 11 to other major events in American history began the moment the second plane hit the World Trade Towers.
But local historians say it will be years, possibly decades, before we know just how deeply the event will be carved into the timeline of human events.
``It was definitely a turning point in our lives. How big or how little, that is yet to be determined,'' said Lawrence Clayton, chairman of the history department at the University of Alabama.
Clayton said one delay and it's one of many in historians' assessment of the event is the chain of events it sparked, namely the war on terrorism, is ongoing.
``In the midst of a campaign, a struggle or a war, the things that started it aren't as important as the things you have to deal with on a daily basis, on an hourly basis,'' he said.
``I would suspect that Pearl Harbor wasn't really important to them at that point (during World War II), but what was important was the war effort itself."
Yet, other than its effect of sending the United States headlong into war, Clayton and others are hesitant to compare Sept. 11 to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier.
``It's not a second Pearl Harbor. It has its own unique meaning,'' Clayton said.
``It's valid to make comparisons, because that's how you make judgements. But the act was so surprising and so unprecedented that it holds its own place in history."
Corley Odom Jr., professor of history and speech at Shelton State Community College, called comparisons between Sept. 11 and Pearl Harbor ``a weak analogy'' and pointed to what he believes are several distinct differences.
At Pearl Harbor and during World War II, Odom said the United States was fighting an identifiable enemy with the help of solid allies under a formal declaration of war, none of which hold true with the war on terrorism.
But perhaps the most significant difference, Odom said, is the absence of a way to define victory.
``I asked my students the other day 'When will we know the war on terrorism is over?' and there were just blank stares,'' Odom said. ``Their consensus was we may be fighting this war for the rest of our lives."
So, without a definable end to the war, when is it safe for historians to begin assessing the importance of Sept. 11? ``It depends on who you ask and when you ask them,'' said UA professor George Rable, Summersell Chair in Southern History in the College of Arts and Sciences.
``But most would be reluctant to say what we know now is going to hold water 50, 100 years from now."
Like Clayton, Rable said it is difficult, if not impossible, for historians to accurately analyze the importance of events during their own lifetime.
``Usually, historians are not particularly comfortable assessing events in the recent past,'' he said. ``It will be the historians long after we're dead who will have the final say."
However, part of what future historians will use to draw their conclusions about Sept. 11, Rable said, will be the experiences of people who lived through the event, information that is being collected and recorded now.
The 9/11 Digital Archive, found on the Internet at www.911digitalarchive.org, uses electronic media to collect, preserve and present the events of Sept. 11 and the public's response to them.
A joint project of the City University of New York and George Mason University, the archive allows people to ``deposit'' their first-hand accounts of Sept. 11 on the Web.
From the Wall Street commuter who saw the towers collapse from the subway portal to the housewife in Missouri who watched it on television, the archive seeks to record the perspectives of everyday people, not just those directly impacted by the event.
Similarly, on Sept. 12, the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress called on folklorists around the country to tape the thoughts and feelings of average citizens following the attacks.
The same task was asked of folklorists on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Odom noted the paradox between the task of historians to objectively record events while using the inherently emotional experiences of the people who lived it, a task made more challenging when they have emotional ties to the event themselves.
``As historians, we are supposed to be objective, analytical and logical. I think that's a nice goal, but I personally get emotionally involved in history,'' he said.
For that reason, Odom said it is necessary that historians put distance between themselves and the event, and the best way to do that is with time.
But even then, Odom said it might be impossible to ever say conclusively what impact Sept. 11 had on the United States and the world.
What stories will be found within the pages of history books will depend on what information is available at the time and how historians choose to classify it, he said.
``Every time you grab a piece of history and think you can tie a nice bow around it, new information pops up and you realize your analysis and your conclusions may not be accurate,'' he said.