U.S. Marks 17 Years Since 9/11 Attacks

Cataclysmic events often bring with them violent and abrupt endings to settled ages and long-established norms. Those absorbing the impact of these historical aftershocks rarely grasp the epochal changes in real time.

Four presidential campaigns. Eight congressional elections. The longest war in U.S. history. The Sept. 11 attacks have shaped U.S. politics, sometimes over the objections of victims’ families.