Items related to High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World's...
With the birth of the steel-frame skyscraper in the late 19th cent. came a new breed of man: the structural ironworkers who walked steel beams -- no wider, often, than the face of a hardcover book -- 100s of feet above ground, to raise the towers & bridges that so abruptly transformed America in the 20th cent. Many early ironworkers were former sailors, new Amer. of Irish & Scand. descent. Others came from a small Mohawk Indian reservation or from seaside towns in Newfoundland. This is the stirring epic of these proud, courageous men & the icons they built -- & are still building. A fast-paced portrait of vivid personalities, containing episodes of startling violence & exhilarating adventure, as well as a moving account of brotherhood & family. B&W photos.
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About the Author:
From Publishers Weekly:
Jim Rasenberger is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. He lives in New York City with his wife and twin sons. High Steel is his first book.
Inspired by a New York Times article Rasenberger wrote on ironworkers in early 2001, this historical overview of skyscraper construction in New York City and elsewhere traces the erection of such structures as the Flatiron and Chrysler buildings, the Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge, the World Trade Center and the lavish new Time Warner Center. This last building is the narrative column around which Rasenberger builds his book, which is largely devoted to "the men who risked the most and labored the hardest"—the ironworkers who put the high-rise steel columns in place. Though his admiration at times seems compulsory rather than genuine, Rasenberger emphasizes the often heroic, death-defying feats ironworkers perform. He also takes account of far-flung communities that breed ironworkers, such as the Mohawk Indians of upstate New York. The chronological history is broken up by alternating sections on the Time Warner Center and often feels less like a single narrative than a collection of vignettes. Rasenberger's principal claim, that ironwork's days are numbered because of the growing reliance on concrete, is often lost in the telling. Even the Time Warner Center was built more with concrete than iron, which is costlier and more vulnerable to heat in events such as the World Trade Center attacks. This recounting, while less than fully absorbing, serves as a valuable history for building enthusiasts and a thoughtful testament to a dying craft that has helped fuel the American economy for more than a century. 21 b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDiane Pub Co
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0756793289
- ISBN 13 9780756793289
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages376
- Rating
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