This tells the story of one family through three generations as they leave Slovakia and come to Braddock, Pennsylvania to work in the steel mills, through strikes and lock-outs, wage reductions, work reductions, and losses of jobs and family. It begins when Kracha leaves his wife behind and comes to the US. His wife joins him after she gives birth to their son who dies shortly after. They have three more daughters. Kracha eventually leaves the mills and opens a butcher shop. His wife dies and he remarries, only to lose it all. As Kracha rebuilds his life, we pick up the story with his daughter Mary and her husband Mike, as they court, marry, and take in borders as Mike goes through a lot in the mills that Kracha did. We see them raise their children and go through good and bad times. We finish the story with their son, Johnny--AKA--Dobie as he works in the mill and works to bring the union into the mills. We see all their struggles.

I loved this book! It really gets the grittiness of the mills and the mill towns. He does not make their lives glamorous. These people are not the owners, not the Carnegies or Fricks, not the doctors or lawyers. They are the everyday people whose lives revolved around the mills and what the owners did to the workers. Knowing that so many died in the mills with their families left destitute so a few could be rich and treat the workers like dirt. It angered me. I liked these people. I know these people. They work hard but never seem to get ahead.

While this was written in 1941, it is still pertinent today. We see the same things happening as workers try to unionize. Mary's story, though the shortest, resonate the most with me. She had a hard life. I liked Dobie's reflections after they bring in the union of what an American is (circa late 1930's.) This is a book everyone should read. It is real and still has something to say 80 years later ( )

Out of this furnace by Bell_ Thomas
Starts out in 1880's and with the travel by foot George Kracha travels from NY to PA. He had other family members who could get him a job at the railroad...
His wife is sent over and she gets pregnant often and they live in a shanty.
Unions form so men can get paid what they are worth...interesting to hear of their struggles and how they overcome poverty and lack of work at times...
Generations of the family and how they lived and died.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). ( )

Back in the late 1990s, in the days of my ABDhood, I used to hunt for syllabi for courses in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Many of these syllabi required or recommended Thomas Bell's Out of this Furnace. Totally unfamiliar with this title, I decided it must be fairly new and with it being so esteemed I placed it on my reading list. For some reason Out of This Furnace proved very difficult to locate. Several libraries I visited listed it in the catalog but a copy could not be found on the shelf. Two months ago to my great surprise I found a copy at Barnes and Noble. First, I have to admit I had no idea it was a fictional account of Slovak family through three generations, which is why I stared at it for a couple of minutes thinking what is this doing here? Second, I was surprised to find out that it was written in 1941.

I can't say I really enjoyed Out of This Furnace. Even though I can believe that immigrant life in the steel towns of late nineteenth and early twentieth century was as bleak as Bell depicts it, I have to think there were still moments of happiness and joyful events. What I really took away from the book as an historian is the way the different generations related to life in America. The first generation seemed content to work and isolate themselves. Coming from a fractured Austro-Hungarian Empire, it only seemed natural for them to withdraw into themselves and forego learning English or making any attempt to assimilate into the larger culture of which they remained largely suspicious. The second generation wanted to fit in, but were not welcomed. They learned English, attended schools, but were derided as "Hunkies". Conscious of otherness, they felt stuck between two worlds - wanting to be Americans but not accepted as such. Finally, the third generation demanded a piece of the pie and felt comfortable using American methods to attain it. The triumph of the third generation in winning labor reform clearly votes for FDR.

From my blog: http://gregshistoryblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/out-of-this-furnace.html ( )

A very good book to read to get a very strong feel for what life was like for immigrants in the US. ( )

NPR recently had news segment on the literature of the conservative movement and they asked the question why there was not a similar lexicon for liberals. If there were this would be the first title on that list. This is a statement of the raison d'etra of labor unions and as a result a history of the development of the things American's love the most - the 5 day work week, the 8-hour day, etc. Things that most of us can't imagine living without. This book is a novelized form of the history of the labor movement.

The novel was originally published in 1941 by Thomas Bell who was born into a multi-generational Slovak steel mill family. It starts with one Slovak immigrant who comes to the U. S. in the 1880's and ends up working in the steel mills of the Monongahela River valley in Pennsylvania. From there it continues to tell the story through three generations of steel workers in the same family. It is an indictment of the conditions and practices of the steel magnates who repressed the formation of labor unions. While at its heart it is a labor union history, the book also raises many issues ranging from the drudge like life of the women in the novel, to the use of epitaphs to describe various immigrant groups, to the environmental damage that was done in the name of progress and industry. The novel has a message and at points I am sure that some would think it is didactic, but the author makes no apology for his views and confronts the reader who might have a differing opinion head-on.

This novel was recommended to me by my father. He learned of it from some of his Czech Club buddies because they felt it addresses many of the immigrant issues of the day. ( )