title: The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...And How We Can Be Safe Again
author: Tom Ridge
description: Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security, recalls the agency's creation and early history in a memoir of his time performing the most thankless yet rewarding job in America. The author was governor of Pennsylvania when President Bush tapped him to coordinate the federal domestic counterterrorism effort after September 11. In a massive reorganization, Congress consolidated 22 agenciesfrom the Coast Guard to the INSunder the Department of Homeland Security. Ridge acknowledges his missteps, laments the baleful effects of politics and turf on his department and decries unfavorable media coverage. He also endeavors, unconvincingly, to defend the work of the Transportation Security Administration and the color-coded terror alert system. Hurricane Katrina did not occur on Ridge's watch, but disaster relief is one of DHS's responsibilities, and he cannot resist a self-serving analysis of the debacle. Ridge concludes with a series of recommendations for his successors, including a national identification system, immigration reform, energy independence and a reorganization of DHS along regional lines. DHS remains a work in progress, and Ridge's singular perspective recommends his memoir to policy makers, students and concerned citizens. <i>(Sept.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  _At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we
  fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step
  the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and
  Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth … could not by force, take
  a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a
  thousand years.… If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author
  and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by
  suicide._  
    
  
  
  Abraham Lincoln, 1838
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  NARRATIVE BY
  
  
  **Geoffrey C. Ward**
  
  
  BASED ON A DOCUMENTARY FILMSCRIPT BY
  
  
  **Geoffrey C. Ward,  
  Ric Burns, and Ken Burns**
  
  
  WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY
  
  
  **Don E. Fehrenbacher  
  Barbara J. Fields  
  Shelby Foote  
  James M. McPhersan  
  C. Vann Woodward**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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