Download or read book Brownsville to Braddock written by Ron Donoughe and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Monongahela River Valley in Southwestern Pennsylvania is steeped with a rich industrial history. Starting with iron, brass, tin, and glass production, the river towns--from Brownsville to Braddock--ultimately helped make Pittsburgh the one-time steelmaking capital of the world. With this industrial legacy in mind, artist Ron Donoughe set out to document the small towns in this region, one painting at a time. Over a twelve-month period, he explored the forgotten towns of Brownsville, California, Donora, Charleroi, Monessen, Monongahela, Clairton, Duquesne, McKeesport, Braddock, and the Monongahela River itself. Brownsville to Braddock provides key insight on a forty-mile stretch of river towns. The post-industrial economy led to a decline in manufacturing, and with it, substantial job losses. These towns face many significant challenges, yet there is still beauty to be found. Donoughe finds it as he paints the human spirit through the mills, factories, parks, and homes. The people he meets share their stories of family joy and sorrows, along with a genuine love for the area they call the "Mon Valley."
Download or read book The Monongahela written by Arthur Parker and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Monongahela is one of three rivers that meet in Pittsburgh, where Parker was Executive Vice President of the Waterways Association from 1971 to 1993. He recounts the river's history from a route for early expansion west to its current commercial and leisure use. Among the highlights are the beginning of shipbuilding in the 1790s, the growth of other industries and subsequent need for coal, Carnegie's first steel mill in 1872, the bloody Homestead strike in 1892, the rusting of the steel belt in the 1980s, and attempts to revive.
Download or read book Lost Steel Plants of the Monongahela River Valley written by Robert S. Dorsett and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pittsburgh's Monongahela River is named after the Lenape Indian word Menaonkihela, meaning "where banks cave and erode." The name is fitting: for over a century, these riverbanks were lined with steel plants and railroads that have now "caved and eroded" away. By the 1880s, Carnegie Steel was the world's largest manufacturer of iron, steel rails, and coke. However, in the 1970s, cheap foreign steel flooded the market. Following the 1981-1982 recession, the plants laid off 153,000 workers. The year 1985 saw the beginning of demolition; by 1990, seven of nine major steel plants had shut down. Duquesne, Homestead, Jones & Laughlin, and Eliza Furnace are gone; only the Edgar Thomson plant remains as a producer of steel. The industry could be said to have built and nearly destroyed the region both economically and environmentally. While these steel plants are lost today, the legacy of their workers is not forgotten.
Download or read book Genealogical and Personal History of the Upper Monongahela Valley West Virginia Under the Editorial Supervision of Bernard L Butcher written by Bernard Lee Butcher and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Counties of Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Marion, Harrison, Lewis, Barbour, Upshur, Randolph and Tucker.
Download or read book The Mid Mon Valley written by Cassandra Vivian and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Monongahela River snakes north into Pennsylvania, it twists into horseshoe bends and has few straight stretches. Tucked into these curves are a series of small towns that represent America at its best. The river, which is one hundred and twenty-eight miles long, is divided into regions by local residents, and the mid section encompassing the communities of Brownsville, California, Belle Vernon, Charleroi, Monessen, Donora, and Monongahela is known as the Mid Mon Valley. What unites this region, in addition to a common landscape and common architecture, is a heritage of ethnic pride, industrial achievement, and championship sports teams. The Mid Mon Valley celebrates this history through a collection of striking postcards from the twentieth century.
Download or read book Homestead Steel Mill the Final Ten Years written by Mike Stout and published by PM Press. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning the famous Homestead steel strike of 1892 through the century-long fight for a union and union democracy, Homestead Steel Mill—the Final Ten Years is a case history on the vitality of organized labor. Written by fellow worker and musician Mike Stout, the book is an insider’s portrait of the union at the U.S. Steel’s Homestead Works, specifically the workers, activists, and insurgents that made up the radically democratic Rank and File Caucus from 1977 to 1987. Developing its own “inside-outside” approach to unionism, the Rank and File Caucus drastically expanded their sphere of influence so that, in addition to fighting for their own rights as workers, they fought to prevent the closures of other steel plants, opposed U.S. imperialism in Central America, fought for civil rights, and built strategic coalitions with local environmental groups. Mike Stout skillfully chronicles his experience in the takeover and restructuring of the union’s grievance procedure at Homestead by regular workers and put at the service of its thousands of members. Stout writes with raw honesty and pulls no punches when recounting the many foibles and setbacks he experienced along the way. The Rank and File Caucus was a profound experiment in democracy that was aided by the 1397 Rank and File newspaper—an ultimate expression of truth, democracy, and free speech that guaranteed every union member a valuable voice. Profusely illustrated with dozens of photographs, Homestead Steel Mill—the Final Ten Years is labor history at its best, providing a vivid account of how ordinary workers can radicalize their unions.
Download or read book California Pennsylvania written by and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Along the winding Monongahela River and forty miles south of Pittsburgh lies California, Pennsylvania. Hopeful prospectors settled the area in 1849 and named their town in honor of those hunting gold out West. California, Pennsylvania traces the growth of this Mon Valley town and nearby communities from the days of boatbuilding, coal mines, and railroads to today. Drawing on the California Area Historical Society's extensive collection of old newspapers, municipal documents, and vintage photographs from the Harry Harris Photographic Collection, this volume also explores the history of early houses and local businesses, and the emergence of higher education from a state normal school into the California University of Pennsylvania.
Download or read book Homestead and the Steel Valley written by Daniel J. Burns and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western Pennsylvania is dotted with what are known locally as mill towns, but few of these communities epitomize this definition more than the municipalities of Homestead, West Homestead, and Munhall. Commonly referred to as the Steel Valley, these towns were home to some of the greatest steel-producing operations in the world. As the Mon Valley's steel production answered the nation's call during two world wars, so did the workers who unloaded countless barges of coal and fed the mills' great furnaces that produced the material needed for weapons, armament, and tanks. Workers emigrated from every country in Europe to make their mark in America. Many of these people spoke little or no English and endured long hours of labor in often hazardous conditions. Their families brought with them the traditions of their varied European cultures, filling their communities with ethnic diversity. Through 200 photographs, Homestead and the Steel Valley conveys the proud heritage of three communities and their role in the nation's history.
Download or read book And the Wolf Finally Came written by John Hoerr and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2014-07-22 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • Choice 1988 Outstanding Academic Book • Named one of the Best Business Books of 1988 by USA TodayA veteran reporter of American labor analyzes the spectacular and tragic collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s. John Hoerr's account of these events stretches from the industrywide barganing failures of 1982 to the crippling work stoppage at USX (U.S. Steel) in 1986-87. He interviewed scores of steelworkers, company managers at all levels, and union officials, and was present at many of the crucial events he describes. Using historical flashbacks to the origins of the steel industry, particularly in the Monongahela Valley of southwestern Pennsylvania, he shows how an obsolete and adversarial relationship between management and labor made it impossible for the industry to adapt to shattering changes in the global economy.
Download or read book History of Cambria County Pennsylvania written by Henry Wilson Storey and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 948 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Rust written by Philipp Meyer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-04-06 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES STARRING JEFF DANIELS AND MAURA TIERNEY An American voice reminiscent of Steinbeck – a debut novel on friendship, loyalty, and love, centering on a murder in a dying Pennsylvania steel town, from the bestselling author of THE SON. Isaac is the smartest kid in town, left behind to care for his sick father after his mother dies by suicide and his sister Lee moves away. Now Isaac wants out too. Not even his best friend, Billy Poe, can stand in his way: broad-shouldered Billy, always ready for a fight, still living in his mother's trailer. Then, on the very day of Isaac's leaving, something happens that changes the friends' fates and tests the loyalties of their friendship and those of their lovers, families, and the town itself. Evoking John Steinbeck's novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust is an extraordinarily moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence, and the power of love and friendship to redeem us. 'A startlingly mature and impressive debut' KATE ATKINSON 'Darkly disturbing and darkly compelling' PATRICIA CORNWELL 'Written with considerable dramatic intensity and pace' COLM TÓIBÍN 'A masterpiece. The best book to come out of America since The Road' CHRIS CLEAVE
Download or read book Out of This Furnace written by Thomas Bell and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2013-02-07 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our all-time bestselling title, this classic and powerful novel spanning three generations of a Slovak immigrant family has been adopted for course use in more than 250 colleges and universities nationwide. Out of This Furnace, is Thomas Bell's most compelling achievement. Its story of three generations of an immigrant Slovak family - the Dobrejcaks - still stands as a fresh and extraordinary accomplishment. The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel mills of Braddock, and his eventual downfall through foolish financial speculations and an extramarital affair. The second generation is represented by Kracha's daughter, Mary, who married Mike Dobrejcak, a steel worker. Their decent lives, made desperate by the inhuman working conditions of the mills, were held together by the warm bonds of their family life, and Mike's political idealism set an example for the children. Dobie Dobrejcak, the third generation, came of age in the 1920s determined not to be sacrificed to the mills. His involvement in the successful unionization of the steel industry climaxed a half-century struggle to establish economic justice for the workers. Out of This Furnace is a document of ethnic heritage and of a violent and cruel period in our history, but it is also a superb story. The writing is strong and forthright, and the novel builds constantly to its triumphantly human conclusion.
Download or read book Reconnaissance Survey Brownsville Monongahela Valley Pennsylvania West Virginia written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Homestead written by William Serrin and published by Crown. This book was released on 1992 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the business, labor, and human history of Homestead, Pennsylvania, the heart of the American steel industry.
Download or read book Pittsburgh s Inclines written by Donald Doherty and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a panoramic view of present-day Pittsburgh, Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines attract pedestrians traveling from the river's shore to the top of Mount Washington. These inclines were completed in 1870 and 1877 by real estate speculators hoping to capitalize on undeveloped land at the top of "Coal Hill," a name given due to its many coal mines. Housing in the valleys and other low-lying areas could not accommodate the influx of new residents following the Civil War. Using technology perfected to haul coal from mines, the region's first inclined railroads, or funiculars, carried people and goods and formed a part of the Allegheny Portage Railroad. By 1900, inclines were an integral part of the city's identity. During the early decades of the 20th century, however, automobiles and trucks made access to Pittsburgh's hilltops relatively easy. Before the automobile, there were at least 15 inclines in Pittsburgh. Today, there are two: the Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines.
Download or read book The Next Shift written by Gabriel Winant and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Men in hardhats were once the heart of America’s working class; now it is women in scrubs. What does this shift portend for our future? Pittsburgh was once synonymous with steel. But today most of its mills are gone. Like so many places across the United States, a city that was a center of blue-collar manufacturing is now dominated by the service economy—particularly health care, which employs more Americans than any other industry. Gabriel Winant takes us inside the Rust Belt to show how America’s cities have weathered new economic realities. In Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods, he finds that a new working class has emerged in the wake of deindustrialization. As steelworkers and their families grew older, they required more health care. Even as the industrial economy contracted sharply, the care economy thrived. Hospitals and nursing homes went on hiring sprees. But many care jobs bear little resemblance to the manufacturing work the city lost. Unlike their blue-collar predecessors, home health aides and hospital staff work unpredictable hours for low pay. And the new working class disproportionately comprises women and people of color. Today health care workers are on the front lines of our most pressing crises, yet we have been slow to appreciate that they are the face of our twenty-first-century workforce. The Next Shift offers unique insights into how we got here and what could happen next. If health care employees, along with other essential workers, can translate the increasing recognition of their economic value into political power, they may become a major force in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Striking Gridiron written by Greg Nichols and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of a strike and economic uncertainty, a football team from an iconic steel town just outside Pittsburgh set out to capture its sixth straight season without a loss, uniting a region and inspiring the nation. In the summer of 1959, most of the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania--along with half a million steel workers around the country--went on strike in the longest labor stoppage in American history. With no paychecks coming in, the families of Braddock looked to its football team for inspiration. The Braddock Tigers had played for five amazing seasons, a total of 45 games, without a single loss. Heading into the fall of ‘59, this team from just outside Pittsburgh, whose games members of the Steelers would drop by to watch, needed just eight victories to break the national record for consecutive wins. Sports Illustrated and other media descended upon the banks of the Monongahela River to profile the team and its revered head coach, future Hall of Famer Chuck Klausing, who molded his boys into winners while helping to effect the racial integration of his squad. While the townspeople bet their last dollars on the Tigers, young black players like Ray Henderson hoped that the record would be a ticket to college and spare them from life in the mills alongside their fathers. In Striking Gridiron, author Greg Nichols recounts every detail of Braddock's incredible sixth, undefeated season--from the brutal weeks of summer training camp to the season's final play that defined the team's legacy. In the words of Klausing himself, "Greg Nichols couldn't have written it better if he'd been on the sidelines with us." But even more than the story of a triumphant season, Nichols's narrative is an intimate chronicle of small-town America during the hardest of times. Striking Gridiron takes us from the sidelines and stands on game day into the school hallways, onto the street corners, and into the very homes of Braddock to reveal a beleaguered blue-collar town from a bygone era--and the striking workers whose strength was mirrored by the football heroics of steel-town boys on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.
