|9780822960911| This classic account of the worker in the steel industry during the early years of the twentieth century combines the social investigator’s mastery of facts with the vivid personal touch of the journalist. From its pages emerges a finely etched picture of how men lived and worked in steel. In 1907-1908, when John Fitch spent more than a year in Pittsburgh interviewing workers, steel was the master industry of the region. It employed almost 80,000 workers and virtually controlled social and civic life. Fitch observed steel workers on the job, and he describes succinctly the prevailing technology of iron…

|9780822952022| A definitive account of nearly every aspect of Western Pennsylvanian life and development up until the War of 1812. The book opens with a narrative of the formative years of the region. Succeeding chapters deal with the development of agriculture, industry, education, religion, social customs, and law and order –all based upon the results of the work of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Survey. Among the more than one hundred illustrations are contemporary pictures, maps, plans of forts, portraits, architectural photographs and more. | Solon J. Buck Elizabeth Buck| Regional| History / General History / United States / State &…

|9780822957928|The Bonds Of Home In An Industrial Landscape| Singing the City is an eloquent tribute to a way of life largely disappearing in America, using Pittsburgh as a lens. Graham is not blind to the damage industry has done—both to people and to the environment, but she shows us that there is also a rich human story that has gone largely untold, one that reveals, in all its ambiguities, the place of the industrial landscape in the heart. Singing the City is a celebration of a landscape that through most of its history has been unabashedly industrial. Convinced that industrial…

|9780822953456|Folktales from the Mountains of Northern Pennsylvania|Excerpt from Flatlanders and Ridgerunners: Out-Riddling the Judge Back in Prohibition my uncle made moonshine. His name was Moses Kenny and his whiskey–they called it “White Mule” was the best in the county. Well, the feds got after him and finally they arrested him. Took him to a federal judge down in Philadelphia. Now, the judge liked a good time and thought he’d have a little fun with this hick from the mountains. When Uncle came into court, he said, “are you the Moses who can make the sun dark?” Moses looked at him…

|9780822958215|Federal Surveillance of Radicals in the Pittsburgh Mill District, 1917–1921| During World War I, fear that a network of German spies was operating on American soil justified the rapid growth of federal intelligence agencies. When that threat proved illusory, these agencies, staffed heavily by corporate managers and anti-union private detectives, targeted antiwar and radical labor groups, particularly the Socialist party and the Industrial Workers of the World. Seeing Reds, based largely on case files from the Bureau of Investigation, Military Intelligence Division, and Office of Naval Intelligence, describes this formative period of federal domestic spying in the Pittsburgh region. McCormick…