A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865-1925.

Abstract

From the age of railroads through the building of the first battleships, from the first skyscrapers to the dawning of the age of the automobile, steelmakers proved central to American industry, building, and transportation. In 'A Nation of Steel' Thomas Misa explores the complex interactions between steelmaking and the rise of the industries that have characterized modern America. Misa begins by showing how the transcontinental railroads' unprecedented demand for massive quantities of steel rails in the 1870s and 1880s led to the production of high-volume but low-quality Bessemer steel, and how that development influenced the American steel industry to this day. He describes how urbanization, including new building codes, led to changes in steel production that made possible the first American skyscrapers. And he explains why steel armor plate for battleships came to cost fifteen times more per ton than steel for rails, and how that discrepancy made Carnegie and Bethlehem the industry's leading companies. Subsequent chapters describe the increasing role played by the new science of metallurgy; the link between the invention of high-speed tool steel and the efficiency craze; and how demands of the automobile makers for a novel, high-tech consumer product gave rise to production of large volumes of high-quality steel. 'A Nation ofSteel' offers a detailed and fascinating look at an industry that has had a profound impact on American life.

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