Angel Patriots

When United Flight 93, the fourth plane hijacked in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the gash it left in the ground became a national site of mourning. The flight’s 40 passengers became a media obsession, and countless books, movies, and articles told the tale of their heroic fight to band together and sacrifice their lives to stop Flight 93 from becoming a weapon of terror. In Angel Patriots, Alexander Riley argues that by memorializing these individuals as patriots, we have woven them into much larger story of our nation—an existing web of narratives, values, dramatic frameworks, and cultural characters about what it means to be truly American. Riley examines the symbolic impact and role of the Flight 93 disaster in the nation’s collective consciousness, delving into the spontaneous memorial efforts that blossomed in Shanksville immediately after the news of the crash spread; the ad-hoc sites honoring the victims that in time emerged, such as a Parks Department-maintained memorial close to the crash site and a Flight 93 Chapel created by a local Catholic priest; and finally, the creation of an official, permanent crash monument in Shanksville like those built for past American wars. Riley also analyzes the cultural narratives that evolved in films and in books around the events on the day of the crash and the lives and deaths of its “angel patriot” passengers, uncovering how these representations of the event reflect the myth of the authentic American nation—one that Americans believed was gravely threatened in the September 11 attacks. A profound and thought-provoking study, Angel Patriots unveils how, in the wake of 9/11, America mourned much more than the loss of life.

"Deploying the very best kind of cultural analysis, Alexander T. Riley vividly illustrates what the narration of United Flight 93 tells us about the contemporary American condition and more broadly provides important insights into the nature of Western societies today. Angel Patriots deserves to become a classic text in the field.", "Angel Patriots is essential reading for anyone interested in American national identity or collective memory. Alexander Rileys vivid and well-informed account of how Flight 93 has been remembered captures the myth-making process in action, and his analysis of sacred totems, redemptive heroes, and sacrificial ritual reinvigorates our understanding of civil religion.", "Alexander RileysAngel Patriotsis an engaging account of the cultural processes through which the meanings, narratives, and memory of United Flight 93 are constructed and reconstructed.", "Alexander Rileys Angel Patriots is an engaging account of the cultural processes through which the meanings, narratives, and memory of the United Flight 93 are constructed and reconstructed.", "Rileys sophisticated interpretation of the myths surrounding Flight 93, coupled with hisstrong research at the chapel and memorial sites, make this an easy book torecommend. [T]his is an excellent book for scholars wishing to learn about thememorialization of Flight 93."

Alexander T. Riley is Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University. His previous books include Godless Intellectuals?: The Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred Reinvented and Impure Play: Sacredness, Transgression, and the Tragic in Popular Culture."