Mines, mills and malls: Regional development in the Steel Valley.

Abstract

<italic>Mines, Mills and Malls</italic> is a case study of political and social development in twentieth century America from the perspective of the metropolitan region, a vantage midway between the local community and the national polity. The narrative traces the evolution of the 'Steel Valley'---Pittsburgh and its hinterlands in southeastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia---as residents and communities faced the turmoil caused by the decline of the area's heavy industrial base. By explicitly focusing on the metropolis as a whole, my research provides a new model transcending the urban decay/suburban ascendance divide in favor of a more heterogeneous landscape that includes failing suburbs, gentrified city centers, and de/industrialized rural communities. I also push beyond the declension model characterizing recent labor and urban historiography by focusing on the shift from heavy industry to services. This approach challenges the easy distinctions drawn between Rust Belt and Sunbelt economies by pointing to the important disparities <italic>within</italic> regions among populations with varying levels of access to employment opportunities. The metropolitan framework I adopt to tell the story of the Steel Valley synthesizes urban, economic and environmental histories, while never straying far from the real life choices of the region's residents. Divided loosely by theme and geography, my narrative looks beyond the artificial borders of municipal limits and state lines in order to see the real and symbolic bonds knitting diverse communities into a unified region. At the same time, I acknowledge the very real impact of political and administrative boundaries that limited governmental and private sector responses to the dual Appalachian and urban crises affecting the area. During the 1950s and again during the 1980s, Pittsburgh's business and political elite reinvented the city, first as a center of corporate administration and later as a 'post-industrial' hub of the high-tech and service sectors. However, this transition remained largely confined to select neighborhoods and certain wealthy suburbs, while the remainder of the region continued to face chronic unemployment and out-migration. The Steel Valley today thus features a complex social and cultural system combining aspects of both industrial and post-industrial worldviews.