Hamilton has been an important activity center in Butler County since its founding in 1791, as its proximity to the Great Miami River made it an ideal county seat and agricultural hub. Beginning in 1845, the Hamilton Hydraulic Company diverted the river's flow through town and developed a system that supplied cheap waterpower to area mills. By 1900, Hamilton was "the greatest manufacturing city of its size in the world," and by the 1940s it was home to several of the world's largest industries. Champion Paper milled coated paper, Niles Tool Works manufactured machine tools, Hooven-Owens-Rentschler built Corliss engines, Estate Stove made stoves, and Mosler and Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Companies earned Hamilton its reputation as the "Safe Capital of the World." More than 150 factories and shops developed diverse product lists in the early 1900s, but only three of these businesses still operate in Hamilton today.

Hamilton has been an important activity center in Butler County since its founding in 1791, as its proximity to the Great Miami River made it an ideal county seat and agricultural hub. Beginning in 1845, the Hamilton Hydraulic Company diverted the river's flow through town and developed a system that supplied cheap waterpower to area mills. By 1900, Hamilton was "the greatest manufacturing city of its size in the world," and by the 1940s it was home to several of the world's largest industries. Champion Paper milled coated paper, Niles Tool Works manufactured machine tools, Hooven-Owens-Rentschler built Corliss engines, Estate Stove made stoves, and Mosler and Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Companies earned Hamilton its reputation as the "Safe Capital of the World." More than 150 factories and shops developed diverse product lists in the early 1900s, but only three of these businesses still operate in Hamilton today.

This is an eighteenth-century report on which much of modern-day American economic policy is founded. When first presented it was not universally accepted. Alexander Hamilton was an important figure in American political history, being the first treasury secretary.

Hamilton’s industrial age is over. In the steel capital of Canada, there are no more skies lit red by foundries at sunset, no more traffic jams at shift change. Instead, an urban renaissance is taking shape. But who wins and who loses in the city’s not-too-distant future? Is it possible to lift a downtrodden, post-industrial city out of poverty in a way that benefits people across the social spectrum, not just a wealthy elite? In Shift Change, author Stephen Dale sets up “the Hammer” as a battlefield, a laboratory, a chessboard. As investors cash in on a real estate gold rush and the all-too-familiar wheels of gentrification begin to turn, there’s still a rare opportunity for both old-guard and newcomer Hamiltonians to come together and write a different story—one in which Steeltown becomes an economically diverse and inclusive urban centre for all. What plays out in these pages and at this very moment is a real-time case study that will capture the attention and the imagination of anyone interested in equitable redevelopment, housing activism, and social justice in the North American city.