"Striking Steel is part memoir, part history of the steelworkers and their union. It is a unique addition to the literature on American labor. Although I disagree with Metzgar's spirited defense of the union, this is an indispensable book for any student of American labor and of recent American history!" -Stanley Aronowitz, author of From the Ashes of the Old: ... Read moreAmerican Labor and America's Future "We have here an informative, engaging, perceptive, sometimes controversial and always challenging history of the 1959 steel strike and the union struggles of the '50s. A thought-provoking review of a much neglected period and event, its results and its implications." -Lynn Williams, past President of the United Steelworkers of America "Jack Metzgar is a fabulous writer whose memoir of his own steelworking family illuminates a now distant shopfloor universe of moral conflict, cultural change, and working class power. Striking Steel is full of insight, wisdom, and passion. read it and you will turn the pages with eagerness and appreciation." -Nelson Lichtenstein, University of Virginia "Through its compelling portrayal of one family, one union and industry, striking Steel vividly brings to life the spirit fo the American labor movement. and in its brilliant reinterpretation of one of the most misunderstood eras in our nations' past; it makes a potent case for organized laobr's continuing role in helping to shape the next American century." -Roberta Lynch, International Vice President of AFSCME and co-author of Rusted Dreams: Hard Times in a Steel Community "The publication of Striking Steel adds to a growing literature about the post-war working-class identity and ways of life. It is the kind of class studies scholarship that labor educators should become acquainted with and use in their teaching." -Robert Bruno, University of Illinois "Striking Steel is a history of the era of collective bargaining in steel, and, despite Metzgar's modesty, very good history it is." -The Journal of American History "...sharply drawn profiles of relationships inside a working-class family and a marvelously complex description of union culture and work practices in a 1950s steel mill." -Dissent Show Less