For more than a century Homestead, Pennsylvania, was the most important steel town in America. The center of the vast Carnegie empire known as U.S. Steel, Homestead fell into industrial decline, and by 1986 the entire operation had shut down. Now a former labor correspondent of The New York Times chronicles its rise and fall. 16 pages of photographs.
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For more than a century Homestead, Pennsylvania, was the most important steel town in America. The center of the vast Carnegie empire known as U.S. Steel, Homestead fell into industrial decline, and by 1986 the entire operation had shut down. Now a former labor correspondent of The New York Times chronicles its rise and fall. 16 pages of photographs.
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Good. Pages are clean! The cover has visible markings and wear. The dust jacket shows normal wear and tear. The front text block edge is deckled Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
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Good. This is a ex library book, stickers and markings accordingly. Fast shipping and order satisfaction guaranteed. A portion of your purchase benefits Non-Profit Organizations, First Aid and Fire Stations!
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Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials such as access codes, etc. May have some wear or limited writing/highlighting. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. Signed by Serrin on the half-title page. Appears to be a third printing (number line ends in 3), 1992. Cloth-backed boards in dust jacket, 452 pp., clean unmarked text, Near Fine copy in Near Fine dust jacket. Dust jacket housed in archival dust jacket protector.
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Very good in Very good jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. xxvi, 452, [2] pages. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Author signed bookplate on half-title. William Serrin, a former labor and workplace correspondent for the New York Times, taught at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. He is the author of several books, including Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town, and editor of The Business of Journalism (The New Press). For more than a century Homestead, Pennsylvania, was the most important steel town in America. The center of the vast Carnegie empire known as U.S. Steel, Homestead fell into industrial decline, and by 1986 the entire operation had shut down. Now a former labor correspondent of The New York Times chronicles its rise and fall. Derived from a Kirkus review: A profoundly moving elegy on the death of a legendary Pennsylvania steel town--and, by extension, the end of a century of Smokestack America--from Serrin, a former labor correspondent for The New York Times. The Homestead Steel Works was the site of the epic 1892 strike and lockout that saw steel chieftains Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick use the Pinkertons to crush the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers. Serrin's account follows ``America's most famous steel town'' through another 100 years that saw its fortunes rise and fall with that of the town's company overlord, U.S. Steel, and even the nation as a whole. During this time, Homestead steel was used for America's skyscrapers, railroads, bridges, and battleships. Serrin covers, with an often acerbic eye, the major corporate and labor leaders who became a part of the town's history, including Carnegie, Frick, Charles Schwab, Judge Elbert Gary, John L. Lewis, and Philip Murray.
I had thought the book was going to cover mainly the 1892 strike at the Carnegie owned steel works in Homestead. Instead I found it a fascinating history of the steel industry, both the corporation side and the union side. It is also a book about the rise and fall of a single industry based small town America. Perhaps the most telling statement is found when the author mentions the early 1990s when it was fashionable "to say that the corporation (US Steel) and the rest of the steel industry had recovered from the massive downturns of the 1970s and 1980s" and gives some of the statistics. He then notes that "none of this took into consideration the loss of about 125,000 jobs at the corporation and 250,000 jobs in the American steel industry in the 1980s and early 1990s and the devastation that was visited upon Homestead and the other steel towns...." The book also points out it wasn't the workers and imports that caused the demise of the industry, but bad management decisions.
