July 5, 2003
"They don't seem like men to me hardly"
Just finished "The Steel Workers" by John A. Fitch. It was part of the Pittsburgh series, several books that catalog Pittsburgh's industrial might in the early 20th century. The book started with great promise, Fitch offering inteviews with steel workers that I though were heading toward a Studs Terkel kind of treatment. But he quickly retreated to official sources and details on the steel industry. Interesting, but I'd have found it more useful if he'd have let the workers speak more. The other thing that is odd is the way he dismisses the immigrant workers. He doesn't even attempt to interview or talk to them and assesses them coldly, distantly. One of the "American born" workers gives a typical view of the immigrants: "Here I am with these hunkies. They don't seem like men to me hardly. They can't talk United States. You tell them somehting and they just look and say 'Me no fustay, me no fustay.'"
Thanks to Howard Owens, I'm reading Richard Ellmann's biography of a James Joyce. It's a fascinating book, revealing a lot of the autobiograpy in Joyce's fiction. It's also a good read, which is sometimes not the case with literary biography. In fact, I reluctantly picked this one up. Now I can't put it down. It's making me want to re-read Joyce, who's "grocer's assistant's mind" always fascinated me. His interest in minute detail and his ability to elevate the pedestrian is incredible ...
Posted by Bob Benz at July 5, 2003 7:52 PM
Comments. . .
How on earth does one write a history of the Pittsburgh steel industry and omit the Slavs?
Posted by: Leanne at July 7, 2003 12:46 PMHe's not omitting them, exactly. There are numerous references to them. I think my complaint is that he doesn't let them speak for themselves. Because they have no/little English and even less economic clout, he doesn't really try to get a first-person account. They're just cogs in the machine while "American" workers are interviewed and treated with more respect. Margaret Byington, whose "Homestead: The Households of a Mill Town" also is part of the Pittsburgh series, does a better job. But she, too, spends too much time slogging through stats and not enough talking to the people who were living this.
Posted by: Benz at July 7, 2003 2:11 PM
Toldcha :-)
Posted by: Howard Owens at July 7, 2003 1:06 AM