| Description |
1 online resource (xxii, 265 pages) : maps |
| Contents |
Origins and settlement -- Iron and steelmaking science and manufacturing -- Pocahontas coalfield and the N & W -- Gary at the beginning -- Labor issues and labor organization -- Coal power and town life -- Steel industry in decline -- An era begins to close -- The signs are all around -- Tough but hopeful times -- U.S. Steel, marathon oil, and depression -- A bleak year -- U.S. Steel and asset redeployment -- The new U.S. Steel -- Muted optimism -- Disengagement -- Prosperity and uncertainty |
| Summary |
The company owned the houses. It owned the stores. It provided medical and governmental services. It provided practically all the jobs. Gary, West Virginia, a coal mining town in the southern part of the state, was a creation of U.S. Steel. And while the workers were not formally bound to the company, their fortunes - like that of their community - were inextricably tied to the success of U.S. Steel. Gary developed in the early twentieth century as U.S. Steel sought a new supply of raw material for its industrial operations. The rich Pocahontas coal field in remote southern West Virginia provided the carbon-rich, low-sulfur coal the company required. To house the thousands of workers it would import to mine that coal bed, U.S. Steel carved a town out of the mountain wilderness. The company was the sole reason for its existence. In this fascinating book, Ronald Garay tells the story of how industry-altering decisions made by U.S. Steel executives reverberated in the hollows of Appalachia. From the area's industrial revolution in the early twentieth century to the peak of steel-making activity in the 1940s to the industry's decline in the 1970s, U.S. Steel and Gary, West Virginia offers an illuminating example of how coal and steel paternalism shaped the eastern mountain region and the limited ways communities and their economies evolve. In telling the story of Gary, this volume freshly illuminates the stories of other mining towns throughout Appalachia. At once a work of passionate journalism and a cogent analysis of economic development in Appalachia, this work is a significant contribution to the scholarship on U.S. business history, labor history, and Appalachian studies |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Steel industry and trade -- West Virginia -- Gary -- History -- 20th century
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Coal mines and mining -- West Virginia -- Gary -- History -- 20th century
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Infrastructure.
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Corporate & Business History.
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HISTORY -- General.
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Coal mines and mining
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Social conditions
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Steel industry and trade
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| SUBJECT |
Gary (W. Va.) -- Social conditions
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| Subject |
West Virginia -- Gary
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9781572337978 |
|
1572337974 |
|
1283239310 |
|
9781283239318 |
|
