The Remaking of Pittsburgh: Class and Culture in an Industrializing City, 1877-1919

by Francis G. Couvares

Overview

What forces transformed a community in which industrial workers and other citizens exercised a real measure of power over their lives into a metropolis whose inhabitants were utterly dependent on Big Steel? How did a city that fervidly embraced the labor struggle of 1877 turn into the city which so fiercely repudiated the labor struggle of 1919?

The Remaking of Pittsburgh is the history of this transformation. The cultural dimensions of industrialization come to life as Couvares calls upon labor history, urban history, and the history of popular culture to depict the demise of the "craftsman's empire" and the birth of a cosmopolitan bourgeois society. The book explores the impact of immigration on the shaping of modern Pittsburgh and the emergence of mass culture within the community. In the midst of these processes of transformation, the giant steel corporations were continually reshaping the life of the city.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791499887
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	06/30/1984
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	198
File size:	908 KB

About the Author

Francis G. Couvares is Assistant Professor of History and American Studies at Amherst College.

Table of Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Map of Pittsburgh

Introduction

Chapter 1. 1877

Chapter 2. The Craftsmen's Empire

Chapter 3. Plebian Culture

Chapter 4. Sober Citizens

Chapter 5. Politicians and Professionals

Chapter 6. Steel City

Chapter 7. Leisure Class, Ruling Class

Chapter 8. The Triumph of Commerce

Chapter 9. Epilogue: 1919 and Beyond

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

What forces transformed a community in which industrial workers and other citizens exercised a real measure of power over their lives into a metropolis whose inhabitants were utterly dependent on Big Steel? How did a city that fervidly embraced the labor struggle of 1877 turn into the city which so fiercely repudiated the labor struggle of 1919?

The Remaking of Pittsburgh is the history of this transformation. The cultural dimensions of industrialization come to life as Couvares calls upon labor history, urban history, and the history of popular culture to depict the demise of the “craftsman’s empire” and the birth of a cosmopolitan bourgeois society. The book explores the impact of immigration on the shaping of modern Pittsburgh and the emergence of mass culture within the community. In the midst of these processes of transformation, the giant steel corporations were continually reshaping the life of the city.

From the Publisher