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Steel City: A Story of Pittsburgh
Steel City is the story of the 1890s golden age of Pittsburgh when its technological innovations and wealth creation made it the Silicon Valley of its day. Pittsburgh was first in steel, food processing, and electricity, and the leaders of those industries—Carnegie, Frick, Heinz, and Westinghouse—are names we still know today. Amid this fevered atmosphere Jamie Dalton, a recent Yale graduate and son of a corporate lawyer, must decide whether to accede to his father’s wishes and pursue a career in law or the steel business, or follow his own instincts and become a newspaperman. The greatest natural disaster of the 19th century, the Johnstown Flood, confirms his choice to be a journalist, and Jamie goes on to cover Pittsburgh’s business titans, labor strikes and assassination attempts. While reporting on the unions of the era, he is exposed to a very different world, symbolized by his infatuation with a mysterious woman under the sway of an Eastern European anarchist. Jamie struggles with balancing the access he has to Pittsburgh’s business elite while maintaining the objectivity to tell the hard truths about those same people. Ultimately, he must thwart a terrorist plot that could disrupt the massive corporate merger that would restructure the nation’s largest steel.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2022
16 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 15, 2024
The Author writes his character into all the juicy happenings of the gilded age. A bit of a male fantasy whirlwind, never the less a fun way to learn the details of this period of Pittsburgh history. Better rating given since the author used family memories to build characters.
October 16, 2022
I had the lucky privilege of meeting the author at an independent bookstore in Mystic, CT. He assured me there would be women of interest in his book along with some very well known male characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! You really feel the adrenaline rush of a young reporter as an eye witness to real events. Although they are secondary characters, I also appreciated the mother and wife of central character Jamie. Highlighting the suffragette movement of the time was interesting. I know the author was well into writing the book for years, but I was reminded of the recent The Gilded Age TV series as I read about all the wealthy Pittsburgh families. For a summer I was a factory worker for the Heinz company so it was also personally interesting to read about that family's beginnings.
July 9, 2025
Fun way to learn some history of Pittsburgh and American industry. Timely read as so many of the social issues at the turn of the 20th century remain (or have reemerged as) issues of today, specifically class warfare, workers’ rights, women’s rights, consolidation of power, and the environment.
The book starts with a man-made (or man-assisted) environmental disaster — the Johnstown flood. It highlights the violence of the union busting of the Battle of Homestead and proceeds to the biggest corporate takeover in history creating a monopoly in the steel industry.
Fascinating view of the “gilded age” which we usually associate with the wealth of the financial industry and New York City.
The book starts with a man-made (or man-assisted) environmental disaster — the Johnstown flood. It highlights the violence of the union busting of the Battle of Homestead and proceeds to the biggest corporate takeover in history creating a monopoly in the steel industry.
Fascinating view of the “gilded age” which we usually associate with the wealth of the financial industry and New York City.
December 7, 2024
Review title: Bringing 19th-Century Pittsburgh home
Surprisingly good historical novel set in Pittsburgh at the end of the 19th century. I say surprisingly because Miller is not a novelist, but a journalist, and by telling the story in first-person narrative he is able to avoid the major pitfall of most first-time novelists coming from other professions: stilted dialogue. Miller's dialogue is limited in use and well-enough written to enable the reader to concentrate on the story (often not the case with other amateur novelists I have read). Miller also makes good use of his family roots in Pittsburgh (a main character in the book is based in Miller's great-grandfather) and childhood years in the Shadyside neighborhood on the east side of the city.
The central historical events are the 1889 Johnstown Flood, and the 1892 Battle of Homestead when Andrew Carnegie locked out his steel workers and tried to send in Pinkerton detectives to enforce the shutdown. Both were huge national headline events, and Miller's lead character Jamie Dalton, fresh out of Yale and son of a Carnegie lawyer, is on hand to provide stories for the Pittsburgh Sun newspaper. The events enable Miller to move his action around Pittsburgh and its surrounding towns, and bring Dalton in contact with the wealthy neighbors like Heinz, Frick, and Westinghouse who made Pittsburgh's east side at the time The World's Richest Neighborhood. A big part of the fictional conflict is centered on how Dalton negotiates the huge cultural, economic, and linguistic divide between his upper class upbringing, his rough and tumble newspaper coworkers, and the poor and downtrodden steel workers he had to interview on his paper beat.
Miller does a good job incorporating his research into the historical events, incorporating them into the narrative to provide veracity and drive the action, and balancing them against the fictional elements. He provides a bibliography of the resources he researched on the times, places, and events in the history, and it is sometimes obvious when description is based on the historical resources, but not distractingly so. The fictional flow keeps the reader interested in Dalton, his maturation through his work and personal life, where he struggles with bouts of drinking and an on-again, off-again relationship with a daughter of the Heinz family, and his difficult relationship with his father, who does not respect Dalton's journalism career choice and suspects Dalton of using his father's position with Carnegie as an inside source. I found myself reading the book through in two days driven by interest in both the history (with which I was already familiar through non-fiction reading on both key events; see for example The River Ran Red on Homestead) and the fictional characters.
Growing up and spending most of my life in the western Pennsylvania area centered around Pittsburgh, this novel had an obvious attraction for me, and will likely be of most interest to those familiar with the town and the region. But as a novel it stands up to reading for anyone interested in the time and the events.
Surprisingly good historical novel set in Pittsburgh at the end of the 19th century. I say surprisingly because Miller is not a novelist, but a journalist, and by telling the story in first-person narrative he is able to avoid the major pitfall of most first-time novelists coming from other professions: stilted dialogue. Miller's dialogue is limited in use and well-enough written to enable the reader to concentrate on the story (often not the case with other amateur novelists I have read). Miller also makes good use of his family roots in Pittsburgh (a main character in the book is based in Miller's great-grandfather) and childhood years in the Shadyside neighborhood on the east side of the city.
The central historical events are the 1889 Johnstown Flood, and the 1892 Battle of Homestead when Andrew Carnegie locked out his steel workers and tried to send in Pinkerton detectives to enforce the shutdown. Both were huge national headline events, and Miller's lead character Jamie Dalton, fresh out of Yale and son of a Carnegie lawyer, is on hand to provide stories for the Pittsburgh Sun newspaper. The events enable Miller to move his action around Pittsburgh and its surrounding towns, and bring Dalton in contact with the wealthy neighbors like Heinz, Frick, and Westinghouse who made Pittsburgh's east side at the time The World's Richest Neighborhood. A big part of the fictional conflict is centered on how Dalton negotiates the huge cultural, economic, and linguistic divide between his upper class upbringing, his rough and tumble newspaper coworkers, and the poor and downtrodden steel workers he had to interview on his paper beat.
Miller does a good job incorporating his research into the historical events, incorporating them into the narrative to provide veracity and drive the action, and balancing them against the fictional elements. He provides a bibliography of the resources he researched on the times, places, and events in the history, and it is sometimes obvious when description is based on the historical resources, but not distractingly so. The fictional flow keeps the reader interested in Dalton, his maturation through his work and personal life, where he struggles with bouts of drinking and an on-again, off-again relationship with a daughter of the Heinz family, and his difficult relationship with his father, who does not respect Dalton's journalism career choice and suspects Dalton of using his father's position with Carnegie as an inside source. I found myself reading the book through in two days driven by interest in both the history (with which I was already familiar through non-fiction reading on both key events; see for example The River Ran Red on Homestead) and the fictional characters.
Growing up and spending most of my life in the western Pennsylvania area centered around Pittsburgh, this novel had an obvious attraction for me, and will likely be of most interest to those familiar with the town and the region. But as a novel it stands up to reading for anyone interested in the time and the events.
March 9, 2024
3.5, almost 4 stars.
I enjoyed Steel City because it concerns my hometown and an industry I have interest due to family connections. However, I am not sure this is a book that would interest the general public.
Jamie Dalton is a privileged young man, striving to make his own way in the world, while still trying to satisfy his family. Set in the late 1890's and beyond, the story begins when Jamie is in high school at Shady Side Academy, an elite private school. He goes to Yale, parties a lot, and plays football, until circumstances force his to evaluate his goals. When Jamie happens to be at South Fork at the time of the great Johnstown flood, his newspaper career is launched. Later, his steel "beat" puts Jamie in conflict with his father over his coverage of Carnegie and Frick, the ruthless leaders in the industry.
In some ways, I wanted more from the story. I enjoyed the parts of about Carnegie and Frick, about whom I have read historical accounts. I want to read more about Charles Schwab. One thing that irritated me was the misspelling several times of Thomson (Edgar Thomson works). Although I understand the author's perspective (Jamie's father is loosely based on the author's great grandfather.), I would have liked more of the story to be about the workers, and even the anarchists, with whom Jamie had some sympathies. I would have also liked more about Jamie's mother's work with the suffragettes. I enjoyed the references to people and places that I know. I loved the front and back pictures and the maps included in the front of the book.
"They came to Pittsburgh from countries where they were serfs, little better than slaves, for the promise of a new life and look what we have given them. They work harder in more dangerous conditions than they ever did before. They live in dilapidated company shacks and can barely feed their families. On holidays they come to this church basement where the wives of the steel men try to atone for their capitalist husbands." (37)
I enjoyed Steel City because it concerns my hometown and an industry I have interest due to family connections. However, I am not sure this is a book that would interest the general public.
Jamie Dalton is a privileged young man, striving to make his own way in the world, while still trying to satisfy his family. Set in the late 1890's and beyond, the story begins when Jamie is in high school at Shady Side Academy, an elite private school. He goes to Yale, parties a lot, and plays football, until circumstances force his to evaluate his goals. When Jamie happens to be at South Fork at the time of the great Johnstown flood, his newspaper career is launched. Later, his steel "beat" puts Jamie in conflict with his father over his coverage of Carnegie and Frick, the ruthless leaders in the industry.
In some ways, I wanted more from the story. I enjoyed the parts of about Carnegie and Frick, about whom I have read historical accounts. I want to read more about Charles Schwab. One thing that irritated me was the misspelling several times of Thomson (Edgar Thomson works). Although I understand the author's perspective (Jamie's father is loosely based on the author's great grandfather.), I would have liked more of the story to be about the workers, and even the anarchists, with whom Jamie had some sympathies. I would have also liked more about Jamie's mother's work with the suffragettes. I enjoyed the references to people and places that I know. I loved the front and back pictures and the maps included in the front of the book.
"They came to Pittsburgh from countries where they were serfs, little better than slaves, for the promise of a new life and look what we have given them. They work harder in more dangerous conditions than they ever did before. They live in dilapidated company shacks and can barely feed their families. On holidays they come to this church basement where the wives of the steel men try to atone for their capitalist husbands." (37)
April 11, 2023
Steel City: A Story of Pittsburgh by William J. Miller, Jr., starts readers in the 1890s during the heyday of Pittsburgh. The city is thriving because of the steel industry, but it doesn’t rely completely on one industry to keep the city moving forward. Food processing and electricity are also cutting-edge industries of the day. Important names we are still familiar with today include Carnegie, Heinz, and Westinghouse.
To weave his story, Miller introduces readers to Jamie Dalton, who has graduated from Yale with a law degree. Dalton must choose between following his father’s wishes that Jamie develop a law career, or follow his own desires to become a journalist.
Miller creates a story full of history surrounding his characters. Some of the important historical events include the Johnstown Flood, an anarchist’s assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick’s life, and the fight between Frick and Andrew Carnegie for control of the country’s steel production.
Amidst the history, readers will also find a solid story surrounding Jamie and his burgeoning career as a journalist in defiance of his father.
For book clubs, Steel City is a treasure trove of material for discussion. Obviously, the historical events will be ripe for discussion. Readers will also find much to discuss about Jamie’s career decision and his work as a journalist, covering important issues in Pittsburgh.
To weave his story, Miller introduces readers to Jamie Dalton, who has graduated from Yale with a law degree. Dalton must choose between following his father’s wishes that Jamie develop a law career, or follow his own desires to become a journalist.
Miller creates a story full of history surrounding his characters. Some of the important historical events include the Johnstown Flood, an anarchist’s assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick’s life, and the fight between Frick and Andrew Carnegie for control of the country’s steel production.
Amidst the history, readers will also find a solid story surrounding Jamie and his burgeoning career as a journalist in defiance of his father.
For book clubs, Steel City is a treasure trove of material for discussion. Obviously, the historical events will be ripe for discussion. Readers will also find much to discuss about Jamie’s career decision and his work as a journalist, covering important issues in Pittsburgh.
October 18, 2023
Lynn B Daytona Beach Shores Community Center Book Club says…I found this book fascinating I lived my first 18 years in the suburb of Mt. Lebanon during the 1930’s and 40’s. My Grandfather worked at Frank Seder’s. It was fun to recall stores like Joseph Horn’s (my mother’s favorite), Boggs & Beuhl, The Duerquesne Club, etc. I also learned things about the Johnstown Flood that I was unaware of as well as the famous people – Carnegie, Frick and Heinz. This book is easy to read. I liked getting history through the fictional characters. #BookTribBC
September 9, 2022
I didn't think I would find this book very interesting but I was quite wrong! I found myself involved in the characters and the story right away and it held my interest all the way through. The author had clearly done a lot of research and wrote an engrossing story of a newspaperman involved in the steel business and the conflict between Andrew Carnegie and Clay Frick. I would definitely recommend this book.
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February 23, 2023Benevolence, loyalty, dedication to American values, are intermingled with greed, avarice, cunning and an unflinching instinct to trample anyone who threatens to compromise their profit margins in STEEL CITY by William J. Miller Jr.
Read the full review on Booktrib.com
Read the full review on Booktrib.com
October 1, 2023
I wanted to love this book! Life long Pittsburgh resident and excited to see our city presented as the home of so many titans!
Unfortunately, the author’s style and speed of development often left me wanting to break out the red pen and add details or revise paragraphs.
Great subject, great idea, execution of the idea was not a fit for me.
Unfortunately, the author’s style and speed of development often left me wanting to break out the red pen and add details or revise paragraphs.
Great subject, great idea, execution of the idea was not a fit for me.
October 25, 2023
Really excellent book. A fictionalized account of Pittsburgh and its industrial titans during the late 19th century. The book begins with the Johnstown flood and ends with the sale of Carnegie Steel to become US Steel. Interesting fictional characters paired seamlessly with well known figures like Carnegie, Frick, Mellon, Schwab, Heinz and Westinghouse.
October 18, 2022
What a great book. So many interesting elements. I loved the history of Pittsburg and learning about the the steel industry. The characters were so well developed that I was fully invested in them.
January 8, 2023
Well written and a must for anyone from or interested in Pittsburgh and the men who shaped the Industrial Revolution.
April 22, 2023
Excellent story of Pittsburgh and the titans of industry. From Frick, Phipps, Carnegie, Heinz they are all in the book. The chapters on the Johnstown Flood are amazing.
September 11, 2024
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Great information about history of Pgh and the Carnegie's, Frick, Westinghouse and Heinz families and the Johnstown Flood and Homestead Riots.
December 17, 2024
Originally thought 3 1/2 stars but bumped it to 4 because of the bibliography.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews