High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World's Greatest Skyline

Book Description

With the birth of the steel-frame skyscraper in the late nineteenth century came a new breed of man, as bold and untamed as any this country had ever known. These "cowboys of the skies," as one journalist called them, were the structural ironworkers who walked steel beams -- no wider, often, than the face of a hardcover book -- hundreds of feet above ground, to raise the soaring towers and vaulting bridges that so abruptly transformed America in the twentieth century.

Many early ironworkers were former sailors, new Americans of Irish and Scandinavian descent accustomed to climbing tall ships' masts and schooled in the arts of rigging. Others came from a small Mohawk Indian reservation on the banks of the St. Lawrence River or from a constellation of seaside towns in Newfoundland. What all had in common were fortitude, courage, and a short life expectancy. "We do not die," went an early ironworkers' motto. "We are killed."

High Steel is the stirring epic of these men and of the icons they built -- and are building still. Shifting between past and present, Jim Rasenberger travels back to the earliest iron bridges and buildings of the nineteenth century; to the triumph of the Brooklyn Bridge and the 1907 tragedy of the Quebec Bridge, where seventy-five ironworkers, including thirty-three Mohawks, lost their lives in an instant; through New York's skyscraper boom of the late 1920s, when ironworkers were hailed as "industrial age heroes." All the while, Rasenberger documents the lives of several contempor-ary ironworkers raising steel on a twenty-first-century skyscraper, the Time Warner building in New York City.

This is a fast-paced, bare-knuckled portrait of vivid personalities, containing episodes of startling violence (as when ironworkers dynamited the Los Angeles Times building in 1910) and exhilarating adventure. In the end, High Steel is also a moving account of brotherhood and family. Many of those working in the trade today descend from multigenerational dynasties of ironworkers. As they walk steel, they follow in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.

We've all had the experience of looking at a par-ticularly awe-inspiring bridge or building and wondering, How did they do that? Jim Rasenberger asks -- and answers -- the question behind the question: What sort of person would willingly scale such heights, take such chances, face such danger? The result is a depiction of the American working class as it has seldom appeared in literature: strong, proud, autonomous, enduring, and utterly compelling.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best.......2005-06-24

Not many books have made me stay up until the early morning hours reading,this one did,the alternating chapters of present day steel workers and early 1900s history was a stroke of genius,all you office people who sit in your little air conditioned rat holes all year need to read this and understand what the construction industry has had to put up with for many years just so you little prima donnas can be comfortable.This is the story of real men working hard for a living.

A Special Fraternity.......2004-10-18

Jim Rasenberger unblinkingly depicts the demanding nature of the work done by these unique men. The reader cannot help but be impressed with their bravery and accomplishment.

It's also clear that this is one of the last few places where men only need apply. In almost every other phase of American working life, qualified women are accepted as working peers. It's really ironic that one of the thickest "glass ceilings" is where they haven't even built the ceiling yet...

But Rasenberger's job is not to change this world, but just write about it. And write he does - you share in the working days of these men, of what happens when they fall (as they do), their families, their heritage, and, in an especially moving chapter, their heroic work right after the collapse of the World Trade Center.

Gender equality is the right thing. I get impatient when I encounter a workplace where women are so clearly unwelcome. What these men do, though, is very special and very much worth our attention and praise. As we might ask them to confront their stereptypes about women, we're challenged to confront our own stereotypes about the "lazy, ignorant construction worker." Rasenberger teaches us that nothing could be more unfair.

These are intelligent, skilled, disciplined and, above all, brave men who can do what we need done. The book will open your eyes.

Outstanding Account of Brave Brotherhood.......2004-06-23

An outstanding account of the brotherhood that built the New York City skyline. Rasenberger does two things particularly well in this book. First, he provides a fine history of the DANGEROUS iron working trade, as it developed with the advent of the syscraper, the redoubtable Flatiron building. "The danger was reflected in the carnage...of 1,000 members of Chicago Local 1 that same year, 103 were injured, 15 permanently disabled and 18 died." Second, he paints lovely portraits of the individuals (the stoic daredevils) who did the work, Sam Parks, "Frenchy" and Jack Doyle, to name a few. I highly recommend that a prospective reader use Amazon's "look inside" feature to sample Rasenber's non-nonsene prose, so well-suited to his subject matter.

A thrilling history and profession, beautifully evoked!.......2004-05-05

"High Steel" has the reader marveling that this dramatic story has remained untold until now. As in "Seabiscuit," the author's narrative skills work with an exotic profession, and a dramatic period in history, to produce a truly gripping read. Rasenberger illuminates the history of ironwork in this country, and beautifully evokes both its danger and its draw to those who join the trade. It is a thrilling, perilous, foreign world up there where the ironworkers spend their days; we are privileged to gain entrance to this world through "High Steel."

A great story.......2004-04-16

This story of iron workers is both extremely interesting and a really fun read. It provides beautifully crafted vignettes drawn both from the history of iron workers and from contemporary tales of today's iron workers at work in New York. A strong narrative thread connects these stories as the reader learns about the lives of a small group of iron workers today at the same time as Rasenberger deftly introduces the history of this trade and its daring tradesmen that brings this story to life and sets it in context. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in iron workers, in the history of our tall buildings and impressive bridges and to anyone looking for an accessible and fun read about real workers engaged in daring and dangerous work. It's beautifully written, a sympathetic portrait, yet one that is not afraid to highlight the faults and foibles of the people it describes, making the story one that resonates as accurate and, most of all, real.

High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World's Greatest Skyline, 1881 to the Present

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Good book on Local 40 Ironworkers
Great Story for Iron Workers

High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World's Greatest Skyline, 1881 to the Present
Jim Rasenberger
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060004355
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Customer Reviews:

Good book on Local 40 Ironworkers.......2007-01-04

A good book for reading about the history and stories of the Local 40 Structural Ironworkers of NYC.

Great Story for Iron Workers.......2006-03-19

Rasenberger brings awareness to the little known and aknowledged trade of Iron Workers. This is an excellent book for those who are in the trade and those who want a close to real life view of who Ironworkers are and what their life was and is like. The book gives a pretty accurate history of the trade going back to the early Bridgeman to the current International Associates of Bridge, Structrual, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. Being a 3rd generation Iron Worker I found this a very pleasureable read and recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about what it is that we do as we build America on Beam at a time.

Customer Reviews:

Treat Yourself..........2004-03-04

...to a $10 art exhibit. There are many who maintain that photography is not a legitimate art form, owing to the mechanical nature of the camera, but Andrea Modica blows that particular prejudice clean out of the water. She's not a photographer, she's an artist whose unique vision is realized by means of the photograph.

Book Description

Through a series of case studies, this volume examines what can be learned, both positively and critically, from the experiences of selected internationally connected firms in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Vietnam, Guyana, and the Nunavik region of northern Canada. This book begins with a set of reflections on the strategies firms might adopt so that they develop both their own assets as well as those of the areas in which they operate. A team of more than two dozen researchers from the developed and developing countries conducted the research on which the essays on this and subsequent volumes are based.

Book Description

This book has been written as a practical guide for finance markets professionals to explain US monetary policy and to make forecasts of future interest rate levels. Aimed at market players, familiar with US policy instruments, Explaining and Forecasting the US Federal Funds Rate will provide a means of making independent interest rate forecasts as well as explaining current rate levels.

Explaining and Forecasting the US Federal Funds Rate : A Monetary Policy Model for the US (Finance and Capital Markets)

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Explaining and Forecasting the US Federal Funds Rate : A Monetary Policy Model for the US (Finance and Capital Markets)
Matthew Clements
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUHBWI

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Experiencing Modern Management
Samuel C. Certo
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books | Advertising | Consumer Behavior | Customer Service | Marketing | Public Relations | Sales & Selling
Mail Order | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0205153526

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Experiencing modern management: A workbook of study activities
Samuel C Certo
Manufacturer: Wm. C. Brown Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0697080412

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Experiencing modern management: A workbook of study activities for Certo Principles of modern management, functions and systems, fourth edition
Samuel C Certo
Manufacturer: Allyn and Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0205116884

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Experiencing Modern Management - Creating Inclusive Classrooms
Certo, Graf
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP3ZKI

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EXPERIENCING MODERN MANAGEMENT: A Workbook of Study Activities
Samuel C & Graf, Lee A. Certo
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOHUV4

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Experiencing modern management: A workbook of study activities for Certo Principles of modern management, functions and systems, fourth edition
Samuel C Certo
Manufacturer: Allyn and Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOR7L2

Book Description

Barbara A. Hanawalt's richly detailed account offers an intimate view of everyday life in Medieval England that seems at once surprisingly familiar and yet at odds with what many experts have told us. She argues that the biological needs served by the family do not change and that the ways fourteenth- and fifteenth-century peasants coped with such problems as providing for the newborn and the aged, controlling premarital sex, and alleviating the harshness of their material environment in many ways correspond with our twentieth-century solutions. Using a remarkable array of sources, including over 3,000 coroners' inquests into accidental deaths, Hanawalt emphasizes the continuity of the nuclear family from the middle ages into the modern period by exploring the reasons that families served as the basic unit of society and the economy. Providing such fascinating details as a citation of an incantation against rats, evidence of the hierarchy of bread consumption, and descriptions of the games people played, her study illustrates the flexibility of the family and its capacity to adapt to radical changes in society. She notes that even the terrible population reduction that resulted from the Black Death did not substantially alter the basic nature of the family.

Customer Reviews:

Best book on medieval peasants.......2005-02-19

This is the kind of academic text that can be read for pleasure. Incredibly learned, with a wonderful bibliography, Hanawalt manages to make coroner's reports (the basis of her text) engaging, funny, and illuminating. Never again can you take the image of peasants mucking around in filth as an accurate view of medieval peasant life. Instead, you will find them to be hardworking, ingenious, complex people. Hanawalt explores the material life (houses, lands, etc) as well as the social and economic lives peasants had, all with a great style. Not exactly a light read, but a fun one if medieval studies is your forte. Could use a few more maps, however, so brush up on your medieval English geography. Overall the best book on peasants I've encountered. Highly recommended.

destroys stereotypes of medieval peasants.......2000-01-13

This book does a great job of getting straight to the peasants themselves and depicting their lives as much as possible instead of lumping them together as all equally miserable, brutish, callous, etc.

Pretty decent for what it is........1998-10-27

While, admitedly, I don't think I'd read this book without prompting, (I'm having to read it for a class), it is actually rather fascinating. The way in which the author uses coroner's reports to support her claims is particularly interesting, in a morbid sort of way.

The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England

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The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England
Barbara A. Hanawalt
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK67E4

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THE TIES THAT BOUND: PEASANT FAMILIES IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IB3HB0

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THE TIES THAT BOUND: PEASANT FAMILIES IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND.
Barbara A. Hanawalt
Manufacturer: NY, Oxford U.P., 1986. 346 pp., illus. Fine copy of first edition in dust jacket.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UDUUAM

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Strategic Air Warfare: An Interview With Generals Curtis E Lemay, Leon W Johnson, David a Burchinal and Jack J Catton (Usaf Warrior Studies)

Manufacturer: United States Government Printing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris and General Curtis E. LeMay: A Comparative Analytical Biography

ASIN: 0912799560

Book Description

Early in June 1984 some thirty-five of the retired four-star generals of the United States Air Force gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual Senior Statesmen Conference. Each year since the early 1960s the Air Force has invited its retired four-star generals to Washington. From that group in 1984, the Office of Air Force History invited four general officers -Generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton- to participate in a group oral interview on the history of strategic air warfare. They accepted and on June 15, 1984, at Bolling Air Force Base, the four discussed for nearly three hours the development and evolution of strategic air warfare. Because the session ended without time for a discussion of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, the four conferred again, this time by telephone, to discuss these and other issues not considered earlier. This interview was the third in a series begun by the Office of Air Force History with the "senior statesmen," the first in 1982 covering air superiority in World War II and Korea, the second in 1983 discussing the type of aerial interdiction used in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

The purpose of the interview was to have the air commanders meet in an informal setting and discuss the development of strategic air employment as a form of warfare. The hope was that in the course of the discussion these men, who had served together for many years and undergone common experiences, might stimulate each other to remember facts and events that have otherwise gone unrecorded, and to flesh out the record with fuller explanations of motives and the reasoning behind great occurrences. The result was beyond our expectations, for almost immediately the four generals began interviewing each other, reminiscing at times, exchanging ideas, questioning circumstances, and recalling motives and objectives clear at the time of decision but clouded over by the passage of time. Often a single question led to four or five others generated from within the group. At one point when they were discussing atomic warfare and the creation of the Strategic Air Command, General LeMay leaned forward and said quietly to General Johnson, "Let me tell you what I was trying to do...."

The Strategic Air Command was but one of many issues discussed. Beginning with preparations for World War I1 and the concepts underlying planning, training, and equipping American air forces for the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan, the participants explained their roles: in the war in flying and commanding bombing missions and campaigns; in creating the atomic air forces in the immediate postwar years; in building and molding the Strategic Air Command in the 1950s; in advising and making decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis; and in leading and observing the Air Force during the limited war in Southeast Asia.

The Office of Air Force History chose strategic air warfare as the topic because it is a distinctive aspect of air warfare that has molded and defined the United States Air Force since the 1920s. From the writings of Billy Mitchell through the great strategic campaigns of World War I1 to the creation of the nuclear deterrent forces of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, strategic warfare dominated the Air Force, determining the preparations for war, the types of airplanes developed and deployed, and the size and configuration of the service, from the location of its bases to the distinctive decoration on part of its uniforms. The very creation of the Air Force was bound up with the effort to wage independent air war, to use air power against the will and capacity of an enemy nation to wage war in order to decide a conflict without -or independent of- military operations on land or at sea. Thus the Office believed that by exploring the experiences and ideas of some of the senior commanders who led America's strategic air forces in war and peace, it would contribute to an understanding not only of the United States Air Force, but of air power itself. Readers should remember, however, that this interview is not history but the collective memory of four leading airmen; it is the source material upon which history rests. The interview was conducted in person, with the followup discussion completed by telephone two months later. The transcript was edited and partially rearranged to follow a chronological format. Each discussant read and approved the edited transcript, occasionally adding some small fragment of material or editing the text further. The introduction, footnotes, and bibliography were contributed by the editors.

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Strategic Air Warfare An Interview with General Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, and Jack J. Catton
Joseph P. Harahan Kohn Richard H.
Manufacturer: US Air Force
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UECFMW

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Strategic Air Warfare: An Interview With Generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, David A. Burchinal, & Jack J. Catton
Richard H. & Joseph P. Harahan (eds.) Kohn
Manufacturer: Office of Air Force History
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N8ZXR4

Book Description

American Jewish leaders, many of German extraction, created the Industrial Removal Office (IRO) in 1901 in order to disperse unemployed Jewish immigrants from New York City to smaller Jewish communities throughout the United States. The IRO was designed to help refugees from persecution in the Pale of Russia find jobs and community support and, secondarily, to reduce the Manhattan ghettoes and minimize antisemitism. In twenty-one years, the IRO distributed seventy-nine thousand East European Jews to over fifteen hundred cities and towns, including Chino, California; Des Moines, Iowa; and Pensacola, Florida. Wherever they went, these twice-displaced immigrants wrote letters to the IRO's main office. Robert A. Rockaway has selected, and translated from Yiddish, letters that describe the immigrants' new surroundings, work conditions, and living situations, as well as letters that give voice to typical tensions between the immigrants and their benefactors. Rockaway introduces the letters with an essay on conditions in the Pale and on early American Jewish attempts to assist emigrants.

Words of the Uprooted: Jewish Immigrants in Early Twentieth Century America.(Review) (book review) : An article from: American Jewish History

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Words of the Uprooted: Jewish Immigrants in Early Twentieth Century America.(Review) (book review) : An article from: American Jewish History
Jack Glazier
Manufacturer: American Jewish Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00099OUTE
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Jewish History, published by American Jewish Historical Society on December 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1032 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Words of the Uprooted: Jewish Immigrants in Early Twentieth Century America.(Review) (book review)
Author: Jack Glazier
Publication: American Jewish History (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1999
Publisher: American Jewish Historical Society
Volume: 87 Issue: 4 Page: 387

Article Type: Book Review

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The Ruling Passion of John Gould: A Biography of the British Audubon
Isabela Tree
Manufacturer: Grove Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Ornithology | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0802114636

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Ruling Passion of John Gould: A Biography of the British Audubon.
ISABELLA- TREE
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RQGBJ6

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The Ruling Passion of John Gould: A Biography of the British Audubon (First Edition with Dustjacket)
Isabella. John Gould. Tree
Manufacturer: Grove Weidenfeld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SQRCRU

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