In the years since the 9/11 attacks, approximately four million Americans have turned eighteen each year and more than fifty million children have been born. These members of the millennial and post-millennial generation have come of age in a moment marked by increased anxiety about terrorism, two protracted wars, and policies that have raised questions about the U.S. strategies abroad and at home. The War of My Generation offers the first essay collection to focus specifically on how the terrorist attacks and their aftermath have shaped this new generation of Americans.
Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and literary studies, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from graphic war images in the classroom to computer games designed to promote military recruitment to books about parents in the combat zone. David Kieran and the contributors address millennials’ intersections with contemporary questions about terrorism, U.S. militarism, and U.S. foreign policy, asserting that young people are both consumers and producers of narratives that contribute to, modify, and resist discourses about 9/11 and the War on Terror. Young people have not been shielded from the attacks or from the wars and policy debates that followed; instead, they have been active participants. One study reveals that the “lived memories” of the attack have led some to link the September 11th attacks to the Holocaust as moments in which innocent people suffered but resiliently persevered. Another contribution discusses how Muslim youth in Silicon Valley embraced the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement as they fought against the harassment, governmental surveillance, and denial of rights that has plagued them since 9/11.
Revealing how young people understand the War on Terror—and how adults understand the way young people think—The War of My Generation offers groundbreaking research on catastrophic events still fresh in our minds.
