Gary, the Most American of All American Cities

S. Paul O'Hara is Assistant Professor of History at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

• ContentsIntroduction: "Built as It Is on Shifting Sand"Part 1. Gary, the Magic City: Creation Myths1. "An Industrial Utopia": The Search for Industrial Order2. "Making a City to Order": U.S. Steel and the Building of an Industrial CenterPart 2. A City Built on Sand: Paradox and Meaning3. "The Youngest City in the World": The Early Years of an Industrial Frontier4. "The Gibraltar of the Steel Corporation": Narrative Meaning in a Steel Strike5. "You're a Damned Liar—It's Utopia": Imagining Industrialism between the WarsPart 3. The Very Model of Modern Urban Decay: Decline and Fall6. "Gary Is a Steel City, Young, Lusty, Brawling": Declension Narratives about Gary7. "Epitaph for a Model City": Race, Deindustrialization, and DystopiaConclusion: "In Search of America"NotesSelected BibliographyIndex

"This book is a very good and delightful rendition of how Gary has been/is perceived by the media and those outside of its region."—Stephen G. McShane, co-author of Steel Giants"Until very recently . . . work probing the cultural dimensions of metropolitan change has been largely absent from the canon of urban and suburban studies. With Gary, the Most American of All American Cities, historian S. Paul O'Hara offers a deeply researched, carefully narrated corrrective that is both insightful and important."—Technology and Culture"O'Hara draws on a wonderful array of vignettes and quotes from writers, celebrities, visitors, and the media to illustrate, with good effect, the different views of Gary."—Business History Review"O'Hara has produced a highly readable and engaging account appropriate for adoption in courses about twentieth-century American culture and urban history."—Indiana Magazine of History