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Making Steel Bibliography
Further Reading

Bodnar, John. Steelton: Immigration and Industrialization, 1870-1940. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 1990.

Social history tracing impact of immigration and industrialization on Steelton's many diverse ethnic groups.

Brody, David. Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1965.

Brody, David. Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era. New York: Harper and Row, 1960.

Classic account of steel labor, analyzes the obstacles for forming unions in 19th century steel industry: skilled workers, immigrants, and mill towns.

Dickerson, Dennis C. Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 . Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1986.

Best account of African-American workers in early Pennsylvania steel industry; the inspiration for Tony Buba and Ray Henderson's 1995 documentary "Struggles in Steel."

Dubofksy, Melvyn. We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1969.

Older but still essential source on labor radicalism.

Ewa Morawska, For Bread with Butter: The Life-Worlds of East Central Eruopeans in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 1890-1940 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

Detailed social history of Johnstown's immigrant communities.

Fitch, John A. The Steel Workers (Reprint). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, Reprinted 1989.

Indispensible contemporary account of labor conditions in Pittsburgh steel; part of the famous Pittsburgh Survey.

Garn, Andrew. Bethlehem Steel. New York: Princeton Architecture Press, 1999.

Haunting contemporary photographs of Bethlehem Steel's mill.

Gordon, Robert B. American Iron, 1607-1900. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Detailed scholarly study of iron making in Pennsylvania and elsewhere; includes excellent description of crucible steelmaking.

Gorn, Elliott J. Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.

The most reliable source on Mother Jones, Gorn attempts to find the woman behind the public persona.

Henderson, Ray and Tony Buba. Struggles in Steel: A Story of African-American Steel Workers. Braddock Films, 1996.

This award-winning film documentary, co-directed by a former Duquesne worker, documents the contributions of African-Americans to the steel industry, the labor movement, and the civil rights movement.

Hessen, Robert. Steel Titan: The Life of Charles M. Schwab. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

An older study, recently reprinted by the University of Pittsburgh Press; still the best treatment of this pivotal figure in American steel.

Hoerr, John P. And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988.

Detailed reporting on labor politics in the postwar period with a good eye for the long-term consequences of labor-management agreements.

James, Edward. A History of American Labor. New York: Macmillan, 1959.

Older, but still valuable overview history of the U.S. labor movement.

Kennedy, Donald, Paul F. Clark, and Petter Gottlieb, eds. Forging a Union of Steel: Philip Murray, SWOC, and the United Steelworkers. Ithaca: ILR Press, 1987.

A collection of essays focusing on national labor leader Philip Murray and SWOC.

Livesay, Harold. Samuel Gompers and Organized Labor in America. Boston: Little Brown, 1978.

A readable account of the trade union leader; more sympathetic to Gompers than most present-day labor historians.

Martin, George Whitney. Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

Extensive biography of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor; details her conflicts with steel executives.

Misa, Thomas J. A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865-1925. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,, 1998.

Prizing-winning study of the American steel industry and its relations to railroads, skyscrapers, battleship, factories, and automobiles.

Perrott, Mark. Eliza: Remembering a Pittsburgh Steel Mill. Howell Press, 1990.

Photo-documentary of Jones and Laughlin's century-old blast furnace, now demolished.

Rees, Jonathan. Managing the Mills: Labor Policy in the American Steel Industry During the Nonunion Era. Dallas: University Press of America,, 2004.

This valuable study examines such issues as twelve-hour day, welfare capitalism, and workplace spying.

Rose, James D. Duquesne and the Rise of Steel Unionism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Draws on rare company labor archive to show unionism at Duquesne was a result of both SWOC organization and company's ERP. Good on shop-floor issues; many interviews with steelworkers. http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/rose/ch1.html

Serrin, William. Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town. New York: Vintage, 1992.

Perhaps the single best book for capturing the 20th century in steel: Serrin combines a reporter's eye for a story with the historian's attention to detail to tell an extended case study of Homestead, Pennsylvania.

Strohmeyer, John. Crisis in Bethlehem: Big Steel's Struggle to Survive. New York: Penguin, 1987.

An even-handed ‘inside" account of the culture of Bethlehem, Pa. inseparable from Bethlehem Steel.

Wall, Joseph F. Andrew Carnegie. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 1989.

The definitive biography of Andrew Carnegie.

Warren, Kenneth. Wealth, Waste, and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.

An outstanding, detailed history of the coke industry in southwestern Pennsylvania that focuses on the business, technological, and labor history.

Warren, Kenneth. Triumphant Capitalism: Henry Clay Frick and the Industrial Transformation of America.. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.

A generally positive business biography of the coke king.

Warren, Kenneth. Big Steel: The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901-2001. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001.

First full-length history of U.S. Steel, rich with data; Warren takes a corporation-wide view. Valuable discussion of USS's Fairless works (1951-91) constructed at Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.


Web Guide

"A History of the Ironworkers Union" http://www.geocities.com/ironworkers373/iwhistory2a.html

Comprehensive and very detailed union history.

"Bethlehem Steel Company: Historical Sketch." Bethlehem PA Online, http://www.bethlehempaonline.com/bethsteel.html

Appeared originally in Souvenir History Book of The Borough of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1915). Information on the main mill and subsidiaries.

"Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania", Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania, http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.com/

Maps, reference sources, essays on history of bituminous coal mines in Allegheny, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Washington, and Westmoreland counties.

"History of the American steel industry and its people" http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/steel/

Includes Hamlin Garland's 1894 essay in McClure's Magazine; excerpts from three volumes of The Pittsburgh Survey (1909); many excellent contemporary photographs.

"Mr. Carnegie" http://www.clpgh.org/locations/pennsylvania/carnegie/

Fact sheets on Andrew Carnegie and other topics.

"Overholt Homestead, Distillery Museum, Birthplace of Henry Clay Frick" http://www.fay-west.com/westoverton/

Overholt Homestead, Distillery Museum, and Birthplace of Henry Clay Frick.

"Rivers of Steel" http://www.riversofsteel.com/

Repository for photographs, documents, artifacts, ethnographic surveys of National Heritage Areas. See pages on 1892 Homestead battle, Bost Building, Carrie Furnaces.

"Steelmaking Processes", Key to Steel, The Worlds Most Comprehensive Steel Database, http://steel.keytometals.com/articles/art2.htm

Technical descriptions of Bessemer, open hearth, blast furnaces, oxygen processes, electric furnaces.

"The Dominance of Rails", A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865-1925 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~tmisa/NOS/index.html

Excerpt from Thomas J. Misa's prize-winning Publication (1998)

"The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/

Supplement to popular PBS program.

"Forging America: The Story of Bethlehem Steel", Chapter 5: The Grace Period http://www.mcall.com/all-bethsteel-printingchapter-5,0,6829775.htmlsto...

The Autobiography of Mother Jones http://www.womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/mj/bl_mj01.htm

E-text of The Autobiography of Mother Jones, one of the nation's great labor activists.

ASME History and Heritage Center http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history

Documents and information on historical engineering markers. See, esp., the marker on steel engineer Alexander Holley

Cambria City National Historic District, http://www.jaha.org/VisitorResources/Cambria.html

Illustrated catalogue of historic buildings in Cambria City, the immigrant worker district of Johnstown.

Chemistry of Steelmaking. School Science, http://resources.schoolscience.co.uk/Corus/11-14/index.html

British school site detailing the chemical chemical steps from iron ore (iron oxide, Fe2O3) to finished steel; discusses acid-base chemistry, properties of steel, and more. Excellent diagrams of basic oxygen furnaces, continuous casting, electric furnaces.

Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, "Life in Western Pennsylvania 1840-1970" http://www.lifeinwesternpa.org/searchResult.asp?SpecSub=Iron,Steel&tit...

Searchable gallery of historical photographs from Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Johnstown Flood Museum http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/oklahoma.html

History, exhibits, and photos from 1889 flood.

University of Pittsburgh, "Labor Legacy" http://www.library.pitt.edu/labor_legacy/

Excellent site for all aspects of labor history, with essays, documents, databases, and more.

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