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  • Published: 15 August 2011
  • ISBN: 9781400095896
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.99

Roots of Steel

Boom and Bust in an American Mill 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.

  • Published: 15 August 2011
  • ISBN: 9781400095896
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.99

Praise for Roots of Steel

"[An] affecting portrait of a decaying loop on the Rust Belt. . . . Rudacille has delivered a book that would do Studs Terkel proud, partaking of his oral-historical approach to the past at turns, imbued with his pro-labor spirit throughout. Required reading for activists and for those wondering where things went wrong for America's working people." --Kirkus Reviews