Available Now · Nonfiction
Keeping Our
9/11 and the Stories That Still Shape Us
Ordering direct from the publisher best supports the authors' mission.
About the Book
Marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Keeping Our Nation’s Promise looks beyond the events of that day to explore what remained in the years that followed. It traces lives interrupted and reshaped, revealing how memory continues to influence the present and future.
Through intimate profiles of first responders, military leaders, public figures, artists, and others directly shaped by 9/11, the book gives human scale to history. Each person featured made a choice to carry something forward, whether through service, remembrance, creativity, or a renewed sense of purpose.
Dr. Chris Meek brings a longstanding commitment to national service and remembrance, while Dave Jarecki contributes a narrative perspective shaped by years of listening to and crafting complex human stories. Together, they create space for these experiences to be heard and shared. More than a record of the past, Keeping Our Nation’s Promise is an invitation to listen closely, remember actively, and reconsider what it means to move forward together.
Praise for the Book
These stories remind us that September 11 did not end on September 11. The people in this book carried its weight into firehouses, classrooms, and battlefields, and they carried it with honor. This is history told the way it should be told, one life at a time.
Leon Panetta
Former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA, from his foreword
A deeply human account of the generation that answered September 11. These profiles will stay with you long after the last page.
Martha MacCallum
Anchor and Executive Editor, Fox News Channel
Meek and Jarecki honor the quiet promises Americans made to one another after 9/11, and show how many of them were kept. Moving, honest, and full of hope.
Dana Perino
Former White House Press Secretary
Co-Author
Dr. Chris Meek is co-founder and chairman of SoldierStrong, a nonprofit helping America’s military veterans take their next steps forward, and founder and organizing committee chairman of The 9/11 Legacy Foundation, which is dedicated to educating Americans about the lasting impact of September 11, 2001. He hosts the weekly podcast Next Steps Forward, where he discusses personal empowerment and wellbeing, and is the author of four books focused on resilience, service, hope, and the enduring lessons of 9/11.
Co-Author
A writer, interviewer, and storyteller, Dave has provided writing and editorial support to global brands, nonprofits, founders, and authors since 1999, contributing to more than two dozen published titles as a ghostwriter and developmental editor. For Keeping Our Nation's Promise, he shaped the book's deeply reported profiles, carrying each story from interview to the page.
Contributor
An award-winning director and producer, Michael has helmed hundreds of projects through Gier Productions, including the 2021 documentaries Wounded Heroes and Healing the Heroes of 9-11. His companion documentary film anchors the 9/11 Legacy Foundation's broader effort to preserve the memory of September 11.
Order Your Copy
Available in hardcover wherever books are sold. Ordering direct from the publisher best supports the authors' mission.
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