Making Steel chronicles the rise and fall of American steel by focusing on the fateful decisions made at the world's once largest steel mill at Sparrows Point, Maryland. Mark Reutter examines the business, production, and daily lives of workers as corporate leaders became more interested in their own security and enrichment than in employees, community, or innovative technology. This edition features 26 pages of photos, an author's preface, and a new chapter on the devastating effects of Bethlehem Steel's bankruptcy titled "The Discarded American Worker."

Sparrows Point was on the map nearly a century before the city of Baltimore was laid out and just 20 years after the colony of Maryland was established. After receiving a land grant from Lord Baltimore in 1652, Thomas Sparrow named the area Sparrows Nest; although he never lived here and his heirs eventually disposed of the 600 acres, his name stuck. In 1886, the Pennsylvania Steel Company purchased 385 acres from Capt. and Mrs. William Fitzell, and work began immediately on a new plant, a shipyard, and a company town. Furnace A was fired up in October 1889. That same year, passenger rail service to and from Baltimore commenced. Meanwhile, laborers who chose to reside in the company town rented houses on streets with letters and numbers for names in locations designated by their job and race. By 1916, Bethlehem Steel had acquired Sparrows Point. Over time, the Point would become the worlds largest steel mill, supported by a prosperous, selfsufficient town.

As the American economy seeks to restructure itself, Roots of Steel is a powerful, candid, and eye-opening reminder of the people who have been left behind. When Deborah Rudacille was a child in the working-class town of Dundalk, Maryland, a worker at the local Sparrows Point steel mill made more than enough to comfortably support a family. But the decline of American manufacturing in the decades since has put tens of thousands out of work and left the people of Dundalk pondering the broken promise of the American dream. In Roots of Steel, Rudacille combines personal narrative, interviews with workers, and extensive research to capture the character and history of this once-prosperous community.

Wives of Steel is based on more than eighty formal interviews conducted over a fifteen-year period with women and some men, both white and black, all of whom were part of Sparrows Point as workers, spouses, or longtime residents of the local communities. Through the stories they tell, we see how a male-dominated industry has influenced personal, family, and social experiences over several generations. We also see the distinct differences and surprising similarities among the lives of black and white women, which often reflect the complicated relationships among black and white steelworkers in the plant.

CONTENTS.--Vol. I (1897)--Vol. II (1898)--Vol. III (1899)--Vol. IV (1902)--Vol. V (1905)--Vol. VI (1906)--Vol. VII (1908)--Vol. VIII (1909)--Vol. IX (1911)--Vol. X (1918)--Vol. XI (1922)--Vol. XII (1928)--Vol. XIII (1937)--Vol. 14 (1941)