Acceptable Men: Life in the Largest Steel Mill in the World

by Noel Ignatiev, Dave Ranney (Introduction)

In the 1960s and '70s, class struggle surged in U.S. industrial cities. Many leftists joined these struggles by going to work in the nation's factories; among them was Noel Ignatiev. He labored in different factories during this period, and this memoir came from his experiences as an electrician in the blast furnace division of U.S. Steel Gary Works. His first-hand account reveals the day-to-day workings of white supremacy, patriarchy, and the exploitation of labor. More so, though, we see the seeds of a new society sown in the workers' on-the-job resistance. The stories Noel tells are gripping and humorous--and at times will bring you to tears.

Genres: History, Labor, Biography Memoir, Race, American, Nonfiction

110 pages, Paperback

Published July 20, 2021

About the author

Noel Ignatiev was an American history professor who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1995. As part of a group of social scientists and geneticists that views race distinctions and race itself as a social construct, he is best known for his call to abolish the "white race" (meaning "white privilege and race identity") while being the co-founder of the New Abolitionist Society and co-editor of the journal Race Traitor. His position is positively stated in his website's motto: "Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity."

Reviews

[Restfulsimulation Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant and funny memoir of Ignatiev’s time in a steel mill, the clear and truthful lessons about racism, technological change and working class revolt are clarified by stories rather than academic analysis.

[Camden · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's great about this book is his description of the interpersonal dynamics and friendships that informed his organizing. It's unfortunate his own anxieties over his social class often came in the way of these bonds though, but still very worth reading to see how this generation of activists thought. Same for his very blunt analysis on race and gender -- I don't always agree with it (namely his gender views), but it's informative to read. A quick and often funny book too.

[KT · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and revealing memoir centred on the author's time spent working and organising at a steel mill
Touches well on the daily lives and struggles of working people, labour relations and their interactions with race and gender

[shannon moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting examination of labor practices, just not my style.

[Stephen CM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on a recent trip to visit Chicago, where I stayed in the South suburbs. That's just a few miles from Gary, IN, where the book takes place. It's very different now from what's described in the book. Deindustrialization is a mother.

The book is a great, straight forward narration of Ignatiev's time working in steel and the characters he met along the way. It's also a look at how working class people make (made?) sense of the contradictory nature of capitalist America right in the molten belly of the beast. You also learn a bit about how steel is made and how a steel plant operates, although I'm sure that process has changed somewhat in the intervening years.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly fascinating and enriching novel, based upon Noel Ignatiev's experiences working in the Gary Steel Works during the 1970s. Although short, it catalogues his experiences with regard to being a Sojourner Truth Organisation militant, a friend, a fishing enthusiast, a bridge player, and quite simply, as a worker, which can encompass all these identities within it. A must read, although its quite hard to place how it made me feel. It's both sardonic and relatable nature makes you both want to laugh and despair. I'll end with one of my favourite lines from the book, near the end, which I think encompasses this nature quite well: "In the United States black revolutionaries I knew personally went to prison for decades or were murdered in their beds, while so-called white revolutionaries went to...graduate school.”

(Extra shout out to whoever did the layout and typeface for the printed version of this book, I thought it was great)

[wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

overall, a pretty decent memoir. i enjoyed ignatiev's descriptions of a typical working-day in the mill, his emphasis on labor-relations, race-relations, and his discussion of the information discontinuity baked into the mill's authority-structure. i also enjoyed how ignatiev describes his personal development through the futility of his organizing efforts amongst the apathetic mill workers, beginning as a feisty new-left radical and ending on an pretty pessimistic note.

however, i'm not the biggest fan of his writing style. he does a lot of telling-not-showing. he constantly reminds us what a radical he is, and though it is reflective of how he thought of himself at each point in the story, it comes off as obnoxious at times. i wish he was more self-aware about how irritating his soap-box moments could be.

however, again, overall a pretty decent read. i'd read it again!