Choice 1988 Outstanding Academic Book
Named one of the Best Business Books of 1988 by USA Today
Hoerr's exhaustive study of the decline of the steel industry, particularly in the Monongahela Valley, is essential reading. ― Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A 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 bargaining 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.
This book reveals more about steel and some of its management and union personalities than has ever been written. It provides an intimate look at cause and effect in the decline of one of America's great basic industries, and it shows the importance of steel's labor relations experience to the country as a whole.
Trade paperback in excellent condition.