No area of historical study in the last twenty years has been more important than the nature of memory and the unfinished bombing is an attempt to understand how americans have recalled the april 19 1995 instance of domestic terrorism that took place in oklahoma city. The unfinished bombing is highly sensitive to the stories of those whose lives have been changed irrevocably by the bombing yet it is also a book of insightful and often incisive commentary on the difficult conflicts that accompany the processes of grief and the building of a memorial linenthal analyzes the ways that oklahoma city became a site in which the industries of grief took hold creating resentment and anger among families and survivors. On april 19 1995 the bombing of the alfred p murrah federal building in oklahoma city shook the nation destroying our complacent sense of safety and sending a community into a tailspin of shock grief and bewilderment almost as difficult as the bombing itself has been the aftermath its legacy for oklahoma city and for the nation and the . The unfinished bombing oklahoma city in american memory by edward t linenthal new york oxford university press 2001 ix 304 pp photographs drawings notes index paper 1695 landscape place and memory can powerfully influence our understanding of historical reality. The oklahoma city bombing happened in an instant but its impact on us society is still unfinished according to linenthal a professor of religion and american culture and the author of two books dealing with memorialization sacred ground americans and their battlefields and preserving memory the struggle to create americas holocaust museum