Customer Reviews

Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

coming from a family of mon-valley steel workers, this book gave a feel for exactly how the community felt during the decline of the steel industry. It helped explain things to me that my family went through, but were too hurt to tell me. I think that whoever reads this book and happens to drive over the Homestead-Highlevel bridge will drive over that bridge much slower and probably will not feel the same about what is now below the bridge.

The best illustration of the state of heavy manufacturing in the US. Begins with the root of the labor movement to the demise of American steel. A must read for anybody who grew up in a smokestack city. Serrin can tell a story with substance and texture!

I couldn't put this book down. Having grown up in Youngstown, Ohio, home of one of the many 'Little Steel' companies, I was excited to have found a book about the history of the steel mills, from their birth to their death. This book is the best I've found so far.

It traces the history of U.S. Steel and its formation and growth during the Carnegie years to its internal self destruction that besets so many industries. The book is chock full of interesting facts not only about the company itself but about its major players, adding a very personal touch to the story.

Serrin, having covered much of this territory during his career as a newspaper reporter, also does a nice job adding a personal touch by including stories of those who worked the mills, the very people often overshadowed or oversimplified in the political wranglings of the industry. Human beings founded the steel industry, human beings ran it and the very backbone of its operation was human beings. People died working in these mills. It was dangerous but the people took great pride in what they built. Serrin includes many a personal story and narrative and it adds some yin to a very yang industry.

Serrin does an excellent job conveying the power the steel companies -- in this case, U.S. Steel -- had and the cold and calculating methods they used to maintain this power. Perhaps the most interesting element of this power struggle was the battle over the years with men organizing and the growth of the unions. The battle between management and the rank and file was always present and Serrin handles the material well.

I suppose the most difficult job he had was adding that extra personal touch. Even though his reporting is top notch and he gives many a personal opinion and thought, there is still the feeling that it is an outsider's report. I can't say this is a criticism and perhaps the only way to really get inside is for the workers themselves to have written memoirs.

It is still an excellent book and provides a fascinating overview and introduction to a complicated subject and it reads easy and is well written.

Serrin writes a good history in this book. He starts from the founding days of Homestead, goes through the story of the Pinkertons and strikers, tells of Carnegie and Frick, of the labor movement, of the rise and fall of eighth avenue and much much more. Well-researched and well-written, a must read. The one error we can not commit is in viewing Serrin's book just as history. I work in Homestead and the situation has certainly not recovered since the book's writing. We must pay attention to these areas that committed themselves to America then got cruely dumped by big business. Coretta Scott King, on the back cover, says this is a must-read for all economic policymakers and all who are interested in the future of America. I couldn't agree more.

This book is as much about Homestead as it is about the steelworkers union and the United States Steel Corporation. This is a very informative book about a town that sprung up due to industry and then suffered painfully when industry dries up and moves on. The things that have taken place now on the site of the old Homestead Works now trouble me, as I'll now think of what once was and of the people that worked and then suffered here. A very good read, but heartbreaking in what became of a once vibrant community.

Serrin, a business writer for the NY Times, writes a magnificent book on the history of Homestead, PA, a classic American smokestack town that was once home to US Steel's manufacturing HQ. Serrin describes the growth of the city in the early industrial age (including the famous Homestead strike in the 19th century), the rise of the labor unions in the early 20th century, its social, cultural and industrial peak in the 1950s, and its decay and near-death in the 1970s & 1980s.
My first trip to Homestead was in 1992 (after reading this book), and I found it to be a desolate, depressing place. Serrin paints a picture of a more lively, vibrant time in America's economy, and that picture becomes painful when you read about the hemmoraging of Homestead in the 70s and 80s and witness the wholesale abandonment of the city today. Through it all, he does honor to the working men and women who toiled for US Steel and the industries and socio-cultural organizations that supported them in good times and bad. I loved that author's conversations with Joe Chiodo and Chiodo's Tavern that once stood next to US Steel and now stands next to a vacant lot (I ate at the restaurant because of this book!).
It's a sad book and one that I will remember for a long time.

Serrin writes a good history in this book. He starts from the founding days of Homestead, goes through the story of the Pinkertons and strikers, tells of Carnegie and Frick, of the labor movement, of the rise and fall of eighth avenue and much much more. Well-researched and well-written, a must read. The one error we can not commit is in viewing Serrin's book just as history. I work in Homestead and the situation has certainly not recovered since the book's writing. We must pay attention to these areas that committed themselves to America then got cruely dumped by big business. Coretta Scott King, on the back cover, says this is a must-read for all economic policymakers and all who are interested in the future of America. I couldn't agree more.

My wife and I have been biking on the Great Allegheny Passage (the bike trail which connects Homestead to Cumberland, Maryland). I recalled this book as we traveled along the Youghiogheny and Monogahela Rivers and the little mill towns. I've read a number of books on this area and biographies of Frick and Carnegie, but this book is the best in giving one the feeling for the human texture of life in these steel, coal and coke mill towns, how they flourished and declined over a one hundred year period. Serrin brings together the industrial, political, cultural, religious and economic in wonderful character studies and descriptions. Anyway, reading it gives new meaning to biking along this beautiful part of the country. Levi Miller

I was born at Homestead Hospital, located between the cemetery where the dead from the Homestead Strike are buried and the mills which are the heart of this book.

This book explained a lot to me about my childhood. I grew up on a street where most of my friends' fathers worked in the mill. There was always seemed to be an air of defeat or at least resignation coupled with a complete distrust of authority.

That distrust played out when the mills shut down right just as I left town.

This book explains what I heard and saw as a kid. And why it all came to an end.

To me, it's a powerful book. It's also a book about my neighbourhood, my childhood, my heritage.

It may not speak to you as it speaks to me, but I'm glad that William Serrin took the time to capture the story before it was gone.

-Ed