When the World Trade Center was erected at the Hudson River’s edge, it forever changed the character of the American city. In Divided We Stand , cultural critic Eric Darton chronicles the life of this billion-dollar building, using it as a lens through which to view the broader twentieth-century trend toward urbanized, global culture. Drawing on political and social history, Darton pioneers a new hybrid genre of architectural biography, revealing the convergence of four volatile elements in contemporary urban super tall buildings, financial speculation, globalization, and terrorism. Now with a new introduction and afterword, Divided We Stand remains the definitive work on the birth and life of the World Trade Center.