Mark Reutter

A book that is more or less in three layers: a history of the steel industry in the U.S., a history of the Bethlehem Steel company, and a history of BethSteel's Sparrows Point works near Baltimore. A great deal of the story is the rise to might of American steel -- the "ruin" part is treated almost as an afterthought, though the analysis contained in it is sound and you can see the portents years before in the sclerotic way that BethSteel was run. The book is now well over 30 years old, and show more much has changed, including BethSteel vanishing altogether. It would be interesting to see this book updated. Recommended. show less