Boston College Assistant Professor of Communication Renée Pastel considers media representations of the “War on Terror,” notably films, television shows, and online videos,  in her new book War in Pieces: “War on Terror” Media and the Fracturing of American Identity (Rutgers University Press, 2026). Focusing on the period of 2001-2013, War in Pieces points to four central figures in depictions of the conflicts: the war journalist, the active-duty service member, the veteran, and the military family. As consensus about America’s response to 9/11 ebbed, and as Americans sought to deal with various post-9/11 cultural anxieties, explains Pastel, these four main narrative figures helped uphold a continued sense of unified national identity—even as different audiences came away with divergent understandings of the war and its ramifications. Read more in BC News.