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
Age Range:	18 Years

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