Forthcoming · De Gruyter Brill · August 2026
Rising From
Ground Zero
9/11 and the FDNY's Path through Crisis to Transformation
Gregory P. Shea · Paul Brown · Andre Kotze with Lauren Starkey
The FDNY lost 343 firefighters on September 11, 2001. Rising from Ground Zero tells the story of what came next: the rescue, the recovery, the grief, and the choice few organizations ever face — whether to rebuild what was lost or reimagine what the institution could become. The FDNY chose to transform. This book draws on nearly 90 hours of interviews with FDNY firefighters and other responders to the disaster at the World Trade Center, as well as those who led the department through the transformation that followed. It contains both an oral history and a consideration of lessons for leaders.
Twenty-five years on
Fewer than 600 of
11,500
FDNY firefighters at the World Trade Center on September 11 remain on the job. More than 400 have been lost to 9/11-related illnesses since the attacks. The voices in this book were at risk of being lost. Not anymore.
A primary document
09:27:39 a.m., September 11, 2001. The FDNY-wide recall,
signed by Chief of Department Peter J. Ganci, Jr.
Chief Ganci was killed later that morning at the World Trade Center.
This ticket is among the primary documents drawn on for the book.
I · The Book
An oral history of how an institution reinvented itself under conditions it never planned for.
Rising from Ground Zero captures those voices. While most accounts of September 11 focus on the day itself, the book takes a longer view, with first-hand accounts beginning on the morning before, walking through the attacks and the collapses, and continuing into the months and years of recovery and reconstruction that followed.
Nearly 90 hours of interviews with FDNY firefighters and others who were at the World Trade Center.
The FDNY of today is one of the world's leading emergency management agencies, with a scope and an expertise that go well beyond firefighting. That was not the department that walked in to work on September 10, 2001. How it got from one to the other, told in the words of the first responders who lived it, is the story this book tells.
Few organizations will ever face what the FDNY faced. But most leaders will face something. The lessons embedded in the FDNY's response apply far beyond the fire service: acting before you feel ready, breaking chaos into pieces small enough to take on, and carrying hard-won experience into what comes next.
“The problem with working with discreet professionals is that they are often reluctant to tell their own stories, no matter how important. Yet, we must find a way to tell these stories because that is how humans have always transferred what matters most — and this is one of the most important stories in our generation.”
Dr. Preston B. Cline, Ed.D.
Co-Founder, Mission Critical Team Institute · Senior Fellow, Center for Leadership and Change Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
51%
of net profits
Supporting the FDNY community
More than 439 FDNY firefighters have died from World Trade Center–related illnesses in the years since 9/11. In recognition of the continuing toll of that day, the authors have committed 51 percent of the book's net profits to charities supporting FDNY members and their families. Your purchase helps support that ongoing work.
II · The Themes
Five things readers will take from the book
i.
Leading when the ground gives way
What it takes to act, and to keep acting through fear, fatigue, and grief.
Whatever your job was yesterday, it's not your job today.
Thomas Fitzpatrick — Second Deputy Commissioner
ii.
Rebuilding amidst crisis
What it takes to act, and to keep acting through fear, fatigue, and grief.
Things were getting done without anybody saying what had to be done, because the whole command structure was gone.
Captain Kerry Hollywood
iii.
The long work of healing and integration
Not closure, but healing and integration. How an organization withstands catastrophic loss and then integrates that loss into its identity while effectively resisting being defined by it.
I think the emotional processing took quite some time. Having a mission and engaging in work that you feel has a purpose helps tremendously.
Pat McNally — Chief of Operations
iv.
Learning across boundaries
The September 19 meeting with the U.S. Forest Service, and what the FDNY learned from a partnership it had not asked for — how to give and receive help effectively.
If somebody told me six weeks ago that we were going to have the biggest disaster we've ever had, and the Forest Service was going to bail us out, I'd have had that person committed — but thank God you're here.
Frank Cruthers — First Deputy Commissioner, to Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman
v.
Transformation, not just recovery
A thesis at the heart of the book: the FDNY could have just rebuilt what it had been before 9/11 — instead it became a new kind of organization.
We knew that we were going to have to rebuild psychologically as well as physically, with tools and equipment, and training and procedures. We did that.
Sal Cassano — Fire Commissioner
Twenty Years On
FDNY Incident Management Team mission briefing — homebound COVID-19 vaccinations. The FDNY of 2020 doing work the FDNY of 2001 could not have imagined.
III · Readers
Who the book is for
Leaders who carry responsibility under pressure, and for anyone interested in how institutions experience devastating crises and reshape themselves.
01
Leaders of organizations of nearly every type — especially those in crises, prolonged hard times, and deep change
02
Fire service and emergency management professionals
03
Military and public-sector executives
04
Those who teach, study, or practice crisis management and organizational change
IV · Authors
The authors
Gregory Shea, PhD
Wharton · Leadership & Change
Paul Brown
FDNY (Ret.) · Captain
Andre Kotze
CEO · Executive Coach
V · Early Readers
Early readers
Rising from Ground Zero: 9/11 and the FDNY’s Path through Crisis to Transformation belongs on every Leader’s Bookshelf. It presents FDNY responder, on the ground, personal stories of 9/11 and what followed. Moving and inspiring, it is a story of crisis, endurance, and healing. It is also a story of transformation, of how to transform even the most elite of organizations. Any leader navigating stormy seas or facing the daunting task of organizational renewal should read Rising from Ground Zero — carefully.
Admiral James Stavridis 16th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO · Author of 2084: A Novel of Future War
Rising from Ground Zero is a masterful account of the response of New York firefighters to the calamitous events of 9/11 and the later rebuilding of their decimated ranks. Drawing on depth interviews with those who rushed to the World Trade Center on that fateful day, Greg Shea, Paul Brown, Andre Kotze, and Lauren Starkey provide a graphic and compelling account of the firefighters’ “lived experience” and the enduring lessons for crisis leadership at its best.
Michael Useem Professor of Management Emeritus, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania · Author of The Leadership Moment
Rising from Ground Zero preserves what must never be lost: the lived truth of those who answered the call on September 11 and in the long decades since then. Some books inform. Rising from Ground Zero transforms. The unvarnished words of the 9/11 FDNY responders show us what leadership looks like when the ground itself gives way. This book is honest, humane, and quietly devastating. Read it slowly. Listen to the people’s voices, their pain, their grief, their strength and their hope. If you lead anyone—a team, a company, a family—open this book, let these firefighters speak, and take to heart what only they can teach us.
Annie McKee Bestselling author and leadership expert · Co-author of Primal Leadership
A deeply human account of 9/11 and its aftermath, told by those who lived it. Rising from Ground Zero is as much about leadership, trust, and resilience as it is about tragedy—and offers enduring lessons for anyone leading through crisis.
Laura Kavanagh 34th FDNY Commissioner (Ret.) · Distinguished Visiting Urbanist, New York University
A powerful and fully immersive narrative, Rising from Ground Zero chronicles the most tragic event in the storied history of the FDNY. Through a gripping reconstruction of that fateful day—and the critical decisions that followed—the book offers a rare window into leadership under extreme pressure.
Drawing on firsthand accounts and rigorous analysis, the authors illuminate the sacrifice, bravery, and resilience of one of the world’s premier first responder organizations. Both a tribute and a study in crisis management, Rising from Ground Zero is essential reading for leaders and aspiring professionals across public safety, government, the military, and beyond.
John Sudnik FDNY Chief of Department, 2018–2021
This is the go-to book for firefighters and leaders—the definitive FDNY 9/11 book. This is the story of the survivors and leaders who brought the FDNY through unfathomable disaster and led the department into the future. Everyone who is or wants to be a leader should read this book, put themselves into an FDNY leader’s shoes, and answer the authors’ “whisper in your ear” question. It’s the book every firefighter coming on the job over the next hundred years should read.
Vincent Dunn FDNY Deputy Chief (Ret.) · Author of Collapse of Burning Buildings
From an operational and leadership perspective, this book is a fantastic debrief of the incident and post-incident organizational change that any leader in an emergency services organization should read. As a first responder, I found the personal stories and vignettes from the responders especially impactful. A team of first responders without a strong organizational culture and ethos is just a collection of trained individuals who share a location during a shift. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from what went well and not-so-well during the massive 9/11 response, but this book is an inspirational testament to the first responders out there that when an organization’s leaders instill a sense of duty, team belonging, and shared mission and purpose, those responders will rise to the occasion as a team and navigate the unthinkable with courage.
Michael Carunchio, NRP (Paramedic) Host, The World’s Okayest Medic Podcast
The lessons learned from the FDNY’s response on and after 9/11 are universally applicable, demonstrating that the strength of an organization in crisis is forged in the values it establishes long before the event. Nowhere is this more evident than in the raw and resolute voices of the FDNY personnel who lived it. Shea, Brown, and Kotze offer an unprecedented look at how the FDNY’s storied history, paramilitary structure, and deep-rooted brotherhood created a foundation that held when everything else gave way. The narrative reveals how culture and character take over when even the most rigorous planning is eclipsed by the unthinkable. It is a necessary piece of our national history that captures the heart of public service and the extraordinary lengths to which our first responders go to protect their fellow countrymen. I encourage you to read this slowly—it will undoubtedly touch you. You should therefore proceed with the care and attention that the book deserves. Rising from Ground Zero is essential reading for everyone, especially every American.
Guy Barber, MPH, FACHE, NREMT-P Air Medical Executive & EMS Educator · Strategic Specialist in Healthcare Operations & Emergency Systems
Drawing on personal vignettes from New York firefighters, the authors capture both heroism and humanity on a day that redefined a generation of first responders. While poignant and heart-rending, this book also offers powerful lessons for how high-performing organizations confront unimaginable circumstances and emerge stronger.
Michele L. Malvesti, PhD Former senior counterterrorism official, National Security Council staff, The White House
Rising from Ground Zero is multi-layered and each layer has critical elements that contribute to the whole. First is the emotional first-person account of that seminal day in American history — September 11, 2001, when America changed forever. As you hear the firefighters and other first responders relate their story, you weep and feel their pain, and you also remember every moment of that day. The next layer is a realization of the training and command structure that allows large organizations like the New York City Fire Department, the military, and others to function, even when they have been decapitated of leadership. Next come the leadership lessons, and what we see is how well-trained women and men respond, adapt, and prevail in the most difficult situations imaginable. This is a book to be read, meditated upon, and experienced. Well done.
Thomas E. Beeman, PhD, LHD (hon), LFACHE, FCPP Rear Admiral (U), U.S. Navy
An inspiring and informative read for anyone interested in leadership under uncertainty, crisis management, and the power of continuous learning to create sustained change. This compelling book traces the FDNY’s journey through crisis and renewal, honoring the voices of the leaders that built a stronger, more resilient department while preserving its heart and soul.
Todd Henshaw LTC, U.S. Army (Ret.) · Former Academy Professor and Director of Leadership, U.S. Military Academy (West Point); Senior Fellow, Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management
What an incredible book! It transports you back to 9/11 and into the hearts and minds of the firefighters. Truly a page-turning read.
I hope that every management PhD student reads this book to see what top-of-class research looks like. Rising from Ground Zero deftly presents a multiple-decade, carefully researched case study in the words of the people who lived the case. The lessons matter in their own right, but the depth of research centers and grounds the book. It is a case study of how to construct a case study.
The book lays out poignant, concrete advice for any leader facing acute crisis, prolonged hard times, or organizational change. Leaders will find many invaluable, to-the-point takeaways here.
R. Edward Freeman Bachand University Professor, The Darden School, University of Virginia
9/11 devastated the FDNY. Starting with the events of that day, this work delivers a truly unique account of how the FDNY reacted, adapted, and implemented sustainable change in the years following. Telling the story through first-person accounts and ample documentary evidence, the book reveals the closeness of connections between personal lives and organization and offers insights applicable to more ordinary days.
Abstract concepts like organizational commitment, trust in leadership, and collaboration so often get measured with a few survey items. Understandably so. But constructs like those are nowhere more real and vivid than in this book.
R. A. Guzzo Co-president, Workforce Sciences Institute · Co-editor, Psychology and Economics of Work: Interdisciplinarity for Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press (2026)
Rising from Ground Zero presents one of the most important stories of our generation. The legacy of the book and the way the authors constructed it will live on long past its authors. Rising from Ground Zero is a masterclass in letting the firefighters of 9/11 tell their story, in their own words, while also helping the rest of us glean learnings from their lived experiences. The book treats the firefighters of the FDNY not merely as subjects but as teachers who found a way to keep learning in the aftermath of the worst days in the department’s history. Through nearly ninety hours of interviews with the men and women who were there, Shea, Brown, and Kotze have done what the best instructor cadres do: they have surfaced the tacit knowledge that would otherwise die with the operators who hold it. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing. Read this book. Then go tell someone the story.
Dr. Preston B. Cline, Ed.D. Co-Founder, Mission Critical Team Institute · Senior Fellow, Center for Leadership and Change Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
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