Non-Fiction: An Oral History of 9/11

Lectures and conversations with historians, authors, and thinkers. 

The Only Plane in the Sky reconstructs the harrowing events of 9/11 minute-by-minute through the voices of those who lived it—passengers, air traffic controllers, first responders, military leaders, and government officials—creating an immersive oral history of a single shattering day. These first-hand accounts paint the picture of a country realizing it was under attack, and the title reflects the haunting moment when all civilian aircraft were grounded, leaving Air Force One as the only plane left in the sky. Just nine days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Graff revisits that harrowing morning, honoring its dark legacy while exploring how those hours permanently reshaped our national identity, America's innocence, and generations to come.

Garrett M. Graff is a bestselling journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist historian who has covered politics, technology, and national security for two decades. The former Editor of POLITICO Magazine, he writes the popular Doomsday Scenario newsletter and hosts the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning podcast Long Shadow. Graff is the author of ten books, including Watergate: A New History, and his works have landed on the New York Times Best Seller list an astonishing five times in the last seven years. He is best known for his three landmark volumes of oral histories: his 9/11 history The Only Plane in the Sky, his D-Day history When the Sea Came Alive, and most recently The Devil Reached Toward the Sky about the making of the atomic bomb.

Produced in partnership with The New York Historical