The Intersection of History & Biography

C. Wright Mills proposed the sociological imagination to describe a specific quality of mind. A mindset that takes into account both the individual and the particular place or life situation that is happening on a societal level as a whole.  When someone sees a beggar on the street corner, the quick judgement is one of laziness or a lack of education.  However, perhaps that person was a successful scholarly person that was laid off during an economic downfall and is now trying to make ends meet.  Thus, one needs to use the sociological imagination to understand large social forces, such as a recession, and the impact they have one one's life.

In light of the ten year anniversary of 9/11, what better way to understand the sociological imagination than to understand the influence that this event had on our society.

It was the end of 1st hour and we had about five minutes left of class before the bell rang.  It was political thought and the room was filled with 50 faces, 50 voices, and just like the rest of my classmates, I was talking with my friends, waiting for the bell to ring.  I looked over to my teacher turning on the tv because of an email that had been received and there it was, the vision of New York City and smoke.  It was a moment of pure confusion, "what was going on?"  The bell rang, but nobody left, suddenly we saw another plane hit the second tower and all of a sudden reality had settled. Students walked through the hallways jumping from one tv to the next, teachers were crying, the school was on lock down.  I remember it taking almost 15 minutes to get from one class to the next.  Classrooms were void of typical instruction and rather focused on the devastating events that had occurred earlier that day.

On September 11th, 2001--this country changed.  While, I was directly affected with the loss of any loved ones, the impact on this country was profound.  There was a fear of insecurity that prevailed throughout the country, airports became a place of dread, worry, and prejudice, and the economy took quite a hit.  The country wasn't prepared for this kind of devastation, and people certainly were not prepared to be at war for years to come, but it happened.  Lives were lost, perceptions changed, and although buildings have been rebuilt and people have carried on, the devastation of 9/11 will forever change the history, "the world" in which we live.