What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11

by Kenneth R. Feinberg

Book Overview

The inspiration for the Netflix film 'Worth, ' starring Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, and Amy Ryan: the true story of the man put in charge of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, and a testament to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586483234
• ISBN13: 9781586483234
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An Interesting Point of View for the Events Following 9/11

This book gives an entire new outlook to the events after 9/11, however not much new information is added after the first few chapters.

Mr. Feinberg Reports

I thought this book functioned as a "report to the taxpayers", perhaps a counterpart to Kenneth Feinberg's report to the president, on his administration of the compensation fund for victims of 9/11 created by Congressional statute immediately after the 9/11 attacks. The writing is clear and very articulate. Mr. Feinberg does not seem to me to be self-promoting, as another reader commented, but simply reiterating his qualifications and his rationale for the way he administered this fund. For purposes of this review, I am attempting to keep my feelings about the creation of the fund itself separate from Mr. Feinberg's administration of it and his account of that process. His account of it is a very engrossing read - something that came as a surprise to me. I read it twice, once to myself and once aloud to the family. I think this should be required reading in high schools and colleges because it is an extremely important facet of the whole event (which we are still in the throes of) that we speak of as "9/11". There are ethical, philosophical, political, legal and undoubtedly many other positions from which to view the fund and its administration vis a vis history, precedent, and so on. This book is an extremely important report to the taxpayers. I only wish there could be a countervailing report FROM the taxpayers! I do think Mr. Feinberg performed good service to Congress' wishes expressed in the statute creating the fund. However, to refer to the fund as reflective of the great generosity of American taxpayers is a bit disingenuous since American taxpayers did not have a say in the creation or any other aspect of the fund. It was created very quickly after 9/11 and was completely open-ended, an unprecedented action. Its creation raises far more questions than are answered and the implication that it was used to squelch asking many questions still haunts the whole process. However, that was not Mr. Feinberg's issue; he had the statute and the fund and the victims to deal with and his report covers his purview with excellent clarity. I highly recommend this book to every American and would like to see it on bestseller lists, ahead of Ms. Coulter's recently published rant. Mr. Feinberg is obviously an intelligent, dedicated, conscientious, fair-minded man whose very thoughtful account of this particular facet of 09/11 warrants widespread attention.

great book

Overall i felt the book accomplished most of what it was after. after seeing mr feinberg on television i was moved by him and how the experience made him more "humanistic" but upon reading the novel i felt it missed the point It gave a very raw reason unto why the fund was established. It offered great insight into how difficult a task it was His background wasn't that bad to read about but what it did lack was the answer to his title "What is life worth?" It didnt answer that question and meerly glazed over it in like 3 sentences in the last 10 pages of the book. i bought the book hoping i would see 2 books, the Victims compensation fund how he handled that and why, and peoples' reactions and i wanted the second book to be about what he has learned about the human condition, about what makes a person a person about why he feels they do the things they do, seeing so much grief one has to notice a pattern somewhere. so in that aspect I'am dissapointed because the book failed to deliver on that, if someone wants to read about the Victims compensation fund, they are at the right place, if you want to study humanity from a person who spent 2 and a half years living and breathing peoples' lives, hopes, dreams and sorrows then you need to go somewhere else.

Clear and Moving

Feinberg gives the reader two experiences in one book. First he explaind the rationale behind the compensation fund and provides thoughtful anlaysis and criticism of the fund legislation. This is a useful exercise even for persons experienced in alternate forms of dispute resolution. Second, and to my mind more importantly, he gives us a vivid perspective on how the victims of 9/11 reacted to their extraordinary loss. He does so in a factual, non-voyeuristic way, but his account is nonetheless very moving. It's a good book and it's an important book. That's not a combo you see often.

Definitely Worth Reading

Mr. Feinberg clearly tells the history of the 9/11 fund to compensate victims. While it is written very factually, which is how a lwayer's mind is trained, the part I found most fascinating was his candidcy with how his own life changed after this experience. He also shared the various attitudes of those who made claims and tired to understand with empathy and compassion their responses. He continually strived toward equity throughout and was willing to listen to critics in order to be as fair as possible. A short and necessary read!!

A thoughtful, fair, and unassuming memoir

Kenneth Feinberg, who had been a congressional aide, a big-firm lawyer, and a mediator, was the ideal person to serve as "special master" adjudicating the claims of 9/11 victims and survivors. This is his relatively brief, spare, unassuming, thoughtful memoir of that nearly impossible task. The best thing about this book is that it does not read as if it were written by a lawyer. Feinberg's empathy for the victims of this unimaginable tragedy becomes very clear. For him, the assignment was literally a life-changing event, as he closed down his law office and became a law school lecturer. Parts of the narrative were a bit slow, but this is an important book.