Pittsburgh Rising: From Frontier Town to Steel City, 1750-1920

by Edward K. Muller, Rob Ruck

Over 170 years, Pittsburgh rose from remote outpost to industrial powerhouse. With the formation of the United States, the frontier town located at the confluence of three rivers grew into the linchpin for trade and migration between established eastern cities and the growing settlements of the Ohio Valley. Resources, geography, innovation, and personalities led to successful glass, iron, and eventually steel operations. As Pittsburgh blossomed into one of the largest cities in the country and became a center of industry, it generated great wealth for industrial and banking leaders. But immigrants and African American migrants, who labored under insecure, poorly paid, and dangerous conditions, did not share in the rewards of growth. Pittsburgh Rising traces the lives of individuals and families who lived and worked in this early industrial city, jammed into unhealthy housing in overcrowded neighborhoods near the mills. Although workers organized labor unions to improve conditions and charitable groups and reform organizations, often helmed by women, mitigated some of the deplorable conditions, authors Muller and Ruck show that divides along class, religious, ethnic, and racial lines weakened the efforts to improve the inequalities of early twentieth-century Pittsburgh—and persist today. 

Genres: History

296 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

Reviews

[Bill O'driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good history of the city's first 170 years, tracing it through the lives of not generals, politicians or robber barons, but non-famous people (like a white soldier captured by Native Americans who spent a few years living with them) and a girl involved in a textile mill strike. The authors use the individuals to paint the big picture. Most surprising take to me was their placing of the decline of Pittsburgh's steel industry to just after WWI (most people would say ca 1980, when the mills started shutting down en masse, or the early 1960s, when a big round of layoffs hit). But the authors say ca. 1920 was when Big Steel's role in the local economy peaked.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Attended a presentation by the authors at my local library which prompted my reading the book. Excellent overview of the ‘burgh! Photos too. I understand there will be a volume two.