Book Reviews CONTENTIOUS CITY:THE POLITICS OF RECOVERY IN NEW YORK CITY , Editor John Mollenkopf. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2005. 233 pp. ISBN: 0-87154-629-9 (cloth) ISBN: 0-87154-630-2 (paperback). Reviewed by Ester R. Fuchs Columbia University Eric Wanner of the Russell Sage Foundation showed extraordinary leadership in bring- ing together New York’s vast network of scholars to “use the tools of social science ... to probe the deeper dimensions of what has happened in the wake of September 11” (xi). The Foundation moved quickly to develop its series of volumes on the disaster and as a consequence we have a rich and detailed history of the immediate and early stages of the post-9/11 landscape in New York. In Contentious City: The Politics of Recovery in New York City, John Mollenkopf had the difficult task of editing a volume of essays whose stated purpose is to address the political consequences of the 9/11 attack on New York City and to eval- uate both the decision makers and their decisions. Mollenkopf states at the outset of the volume that “September 11 did indeed change the political dynamics of the city and the rest of the world, but in completely different ways than anticipated” (4). It is unfortunate that Mollenkopf chose to make such a sweeping conclusion at the outset of this volume. Cataclysmic events are generally best understood years, if not decades, after they happen, and 9/11 is no exception. As I recall, the news media kept repeating that 9/11 would change everything in New York City and the nation. It is surprising that nowhere in this volume does anyone make any effort to explain exactly what the media were saying and what changes they were anticipating. The most successful edited volumes are integrated around a theme or an interesting research question. Mollenkopf makes a valiant effort to put a frame around this diverse set of essays, but the real value in this volume as it relates to 9/11 comes in the essays by Lynn Sagalyn, Susan Fainstein, and Mitchell Moss. Did 9/11 significantly change the existing political dynamics in New York City, or is rebuilding the World Trade Center (WTC) just another economic development project in which political faultlines simply follow the usual intense, fractured, and contentious struggles of other large-scale development projects? Sagalyn and Fainstein put the WTC rebuilding process in context. At first glance, this is an epic story of the clash of interests—the power of a big developer; a public still in mourning after the terrorist attack; a government agency whose power was largely invisible to the public and which was unaccountable to the City’s elected officials; the destruction of a national icon and a symbol of American capitalism; an act of war with a still-unidentified enemy; and the City’s need to rebuild something spectacular and powerful to reclaim what was lost. All three writers in this section of the volume help us understand that the City & Community 6:2 June 2007 C  American Sociological Association, 1307 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005-4701 161