A heart, a cross & a flag

by Peggy Noonan

"This is a book about love." So begins Peggy Noonan's enormously moving collection of her post-September 11 Wall Street Journal commentaries. On the morning of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Noonan began writing, and produced at least one essay every week through September 11, 2002. These candid, compassionate and sometimes heart-wrenching pieces are full of insights and observations picked up throughout the country--on experiencing the return of religious faith to a great modern city on how the events influenced our perceptions of what it means to live in New York, or to be a man, or to take part in a community. Taking her own, her city's and her country's pulse, she administered a welcome dose of humanity, affirmation and inspiration, quickly attracting a large and loyal readership. This first draft of history--a record, written on the ground, of what it felt like to be an American that day, and the days after--balances the immediacy of the tragedy with its b