Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rust Belt, 1969-1984 (Heritage) - Softcover

High, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802085288 ISBN 13: 9780802085283

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2003

Synopsis

Plant shutdowns in Canada and the United States from 1969 to 1984 led to an ongoing and ravaging industrial decline of the Great Lakes Region. Industrial Sunset offers a comparative regional analysis of the economic and cultural devastation caused by the shutdowns, and provides an insightful examination of how mill and factory workers on both sides of the border made sense of their own displacement. The history of deindustrialization rendered in cultural terms reveals the importance of community and national identifications in how North Americans responded to the problem.

Based on the plant shutdown stories told by over 130 industrial workers, and drawing on extensive archival and published sources, and songs and poetry from the time period covered, Steve High explores the central issues in the history and contemporary politics of plant closings. In so doing, this study poses new questions about group identification and solidarity in the face of often dramatic industrial transformation.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

'[Industrial Sunset] far surpasses the little literature on the Canadian side... and, with its comparative perspective moves well beyond the older work of American political economists... This ambitious study opens up new perspectives on Canadian and American industrial, political, and cultural development that should stimulate considerable interest and discussion.'

About the Author:

Steven High is professor of History at Concordia University and co-founder of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0802085288
• ISBN 13: 9780802085283
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 318