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Steel produced in Youngstown, Ohio, helped America win World War II, and it was used to build the bridges that we cross and the buildings in which we live. But in the 1970s, the mills began closing. Some 50,000 well-paid jobs were gone. There was a concurrent rise in anger as the workers and their children struggled to survive with minimum-wage jobs or in the gig economy. Youngstown represents the widening chasm of class division in the United States. Journalists need to understand how class informs politics and culture. In this episode we talk with a labor studies expert about how to cover the working class.
Bruce Springsteen, Jenny blast furnace, 1996.
[Photo: Michael S. Williamson]
Bruce Springsteen and Dale Maharidge, hiking away from the ruins of the Jeannette (Jenny) blast furnace, 1996.
[Photo: Michael S. Williamson]
Sharon Steel now a forest.
[Photo: Dale Maharidge]
Ruins of factory.
[Photo: Dale Maharidge]