Song of ourselves

Singing the City: The Bonds of Home in an Industrial Landscape

Laurie Graham

University of… Singing the City: The Bonds of Home in an Industrial Landscape

Laurie Graham

University of Pittsburgh Press

Most people are aware of Pittsburgh’s roots in the steel industry, but many do not know the extent of its industrial base. Laurie Graham, in the new paperback edition of her book “Singing the City: The Bonds of Home in an Industrial Landscape,” analyzes the culture of Pittsburgh via the rise and fall of the steel industry.

Graham’s writing style is clear and readable with poetically descriptive accents. She writes passionately about the steel industry, gathering her information through personal visits to both abandoned and functioning factories and interviews with true Pittsburghers. Touching on some necessary history of Pittsburgh, Graham focuses on the actual process of steel production, the lives of those who made that production possible, and the culture of the area that resulted from the strong presence of industry.

The book offers raw descriptions of the process of making steel that evoke images of golden, glowing, liquid metal traveling from vat to vat powered by the sweat of factory workers. Graham tries to convey a true sense of the industrial life through accounts of the difficult, hot and exhausting jobs held by steel workers.

Graham also describes the Pittsburgh that used to exist when so many of those steel workers were employed, a city that flourished for a number of decades after the industrial revolution. When steel production was at its peak, Homestead, now a neighborhood known for its high unemployment rate, hustled and bustled with happy people ready to spend money. Even after steel mills began to close down, many people stayed there because they felt that the community that formed during times of economic prosperity would outlive hard times of unemployment.

Graham takes a deeper look at the community that is often referred to by ex-steel workers and their families. Through interviews, she specifically focuses on Homestead and Millvale, offering interesting details about various religious/ethnic rituals that unified certain Pittsburgh neighborhoods. She notes the unique characteristics of the many Pittsburgh neighborhoods, mentioning that the people of Pittsburgh often form stronger neighborhood identities than in many other cities.

Although she focuses on the positive aspects of Pittsburgh’s various ethnic neighborhoods, she neglects to mention some of the problems that have arisen in Pittsburgh due to such ethnic division. Although Polish Hill is no longer entirely Polish, and Bloomfield no longer entirely Italian, some of the racism that stemmed from initial segregation still lingers. She does mention, though, that it is difficult to research what people are not willing to share with you, and out of those who she interviewed, the majority chose to mention the positive aspects of their earlier lives, rather than the negative.

Graham’s book is informative, interesting and a near necessity for any Pittsburgh resident. When living in a city that was built almost entirely on a base that no longer exists, it is helpful to learn a little something about its history. Read “Singing the City” and discover the origin of the predominant Pittsburgher of the past and the city that accompanied an age of smog, sweat and survival.