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Steeltown U.S.A : work and memory in Youngstown / Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo.

By: Linkon, Sherry Lee, 1959-.
Contributor(s): Russo, John, 1946-.
Material type: TextTextSeries: Culture America: Publisher: Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, ©2002Description: viii, 288 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0700611614; 9780700611614; 0700612920; 9780700612925.Other title: Steeltown USA.Subject(s): Youngstown (Ohio) -- History | Youngstown (Ohio) -- Social conditions | Youngstown (Ohio) -- Economic conditions | Deindustrialization -- Ohio -- Youngstown -- History | Memory -- Social aspects -- Ohio -- Youngstown | Group identity -- Ohio -- YoungstownDDC classification: 977.1/39 Other classification: 71.42 | HD 475 Online resources: Table of contents
Contents:
Introduction: remembering Youngstown -- Reading the landscape: conflict and the production of place -- Steel town -- Deindustrialization and the struggle over memory -- From "steel town" to a "nice place to do time" -- Epilogue: community memory and Youngstown's future.
Review: "Once the symbol of a robust steel industry and blue-collar economy, Youngstown, Ohio, and its famous Jeanette Blast Furnace have become key icons in the tragic tale of American deindustrialization. Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo examine the inevitable tension between those discordant visions, which continue to exert great power over Steeltown's citizens as they struggle to redefine their lives."--Jacket.
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Item type Current location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book University of Texas At Tyler
Stacks - 3rd Floor 		F499.Y8 L56 2002 (Browse shelf) Available 0000002071520

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: remembering Youngstown -- Reading the landscape: conflict and the production of place -- Steel town -- Deindustrialization and the struggle over memory -- From "steel town" to a "nice place to do time" -- Epilogue: community memory and Youngstown's future.

"Once the symbol of a robust steel industry and blue-collar economy, Youngstown, Ohio, and its famous Jeanette Blast Furnace have become key icons in the tragic tale of American deindustrialization. Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo examine the inevitable tension between those discordant visions, which continue to exert great power over Steeltown's citizens as they struggle to redefine their lives."--Jacket.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Once a major steel producer in the US, Youngstown, Ohio drew large numbers of southern Europeans and African Americans to its mills. From the 1860s, these workers repeatedly fought their employers for living wages and safe conditions. In the 1970s, despite workers' efforts to purchase the mills, steel companies began shutting down, often as a result of mismanagement. Youngstown appeared to be a victim of deindustrialization, with resulting images marked by crime, corruption, and failure. Cofounders and codirectors of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University, Linkon (English) and Russo (labor studies) contrast the varied images of Youngstown's past held by business and civic groups, the media, artists, and workers; the diverse memories reflect their class biases. Many suppressed key elements, especially of past labor and ethnic conflict; current civic leaders prefer to erase this past to begin fresh. The authors argue cogently that this erasure "contributes to a sense of failure, loss, and helplessness"; it hides the origins of current problems, harming community efforts to "find effective solutions." This excellent study combines an impressive collection of diverse sources into a complex, well-written analysis of conflicting community memories and their meanings; its import extends to all communities confronting structural change. Academic collections at all levels. J. Borchert emeritus, Cleveland State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo are the cofounders and codirectors of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University

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