Industrial Valley (Literature of American Labor)
by Ruth McKenney
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Ruth McKenney's compelling novel of class and industrial conflict in Akron, Ohio, first appeared in 1939 and was widely acclaimed. McKenney was a capable journalist who had spent a year and a half in Akron, the heart of the tire industry, a city that she said "smells like a rubber band smoldering in an ashtray." Industrial Valley vividly portrays an industrial city crippled by the country's economic failures and also provides a stirring example of fiction predicated on social and political show more principles. It will intrigue readers for its contemporary as well as its historical implications. The images McKenney evokes of workers confused and enraged by a moribund economy seem startlingly relevant today. show lessTags
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The controversy surrounding Industrial Valley reminded me of the controversy Billy Joel faced when he wrote "Allentown." In the begining townspeople didn't really care too much for Joel's bleak description of factory life. Yet, it was the truth. Ashamed or proud, that's how it was. Same with Akron, Ohio. "Rubbertown" as some would call it.
Industrial Valley was written in a diary-like format. Near daily events, both political and social, between January 1, 1932 and March 21, 1936, recount Akron's depressed economic state. Some entries seem unrelated to the depression (a boy's death after being hit by a truck) while others hammer home the effect the ecomony had on daily life in an obvious manner (the suicide of a man who couldn't feed his show more family). In the end, it was the historic Goodyear strike that changed the industrial climate. Democracy reined. show less
Industrial Valley was written in a diary-like format. Near daily events, both political and social, between January 1, 1932 and March 21, 1936, recount Akron's depressed economic state. Some entries seem unrelated to the depression (a boy's death after being hit by a truck) while others hammer home the effect the ecomony had on daily life in an obvious manner (the suicide of a man who couldn't feed his show more family). In the end, it was the historic Goodyear strike that changed the industrial climate. Democracy reined. show less
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