Awards

• Nominated for Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize 2017
• Nominated for David Montgomery Award 2017
• Nominated for Lawrence W. Levine Award 2017
• Nominated for OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2017

Overview

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once synonymous with steel. But after the factories closed, the city bet its future on a new industry: casino gambling. On the site of the former Bethlehem Steel plant, thousands of flashing slot machines and digital bells replaced the fires in the blast furnaces and the shift change whistles of the industrial workplace. From Steel to Slots tells the story of a city struggling to make sense of the ways in which local jobs, landscapes, and identities are transformed by global capitalism. Postindustrial redevelopment often makes a clean break with a city's rusted past. In Bethlehem, where the new casino is industrial-themed, the city's heritage continues to dominate the built environment and infuse everyday experiences. Through the voices of steelworkers, casino dealers, preservationists, immigrants, and executives, Chloe Taft examines the ongoing legacies of corporate presence and urban development in a small city-and their uneven effects. Today, multinational casino corporations increasingly act as urban planners, promising jobs and new tax revenues to ailing communities. Yet in an industry premised on risk and capital liquidity, short-term gains do not necessarily mean long-term commitments to local needs. While residents often have few cards to play in the face of global capital and private development, Taft argues that the shape economic progress takes is not inevitable, nor must it always look forward. Memories of corporations' accountability to communities persist, and citizens see alternatives for more equitable futures in the layered landscapes all around them.

Full Product Details

Author:   Chloe E. Taft
Publisher:   Harvard University Press
Imprint:   Harvard University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.726kg
ISBN:  

9780674660496

ISBN 10:   0674660498
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   06 April 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Reviews

A highly revealing and intellectually ambitious interpretation of a post-industrial landscape in flux. From Steel to Slots offers a fascinating look at the transformations that have occurred on the site of Bethlehem s once iconic steel industry and its implications for those who live or work in its shadows. This ethnographic account makes unique and important contributions to a range of academic literatures and will become a critical text for those interested in deindustrialization, post-industrial economies, neoliberalism, or casino capitalism. --Christine J. Walley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A highly revealing and intellectually ambitious interpretation of a post-industrial landscape in flux. <i>From Steel to Slots</i> offers a fascinating look at the transformations that have occurred on the site of Bethlehem s once iconic steel industry and its implications for those who live or work in its shadows. This ethnographic account makes unique and important contributions to a range of academic literatures and will become a critical text for those interested in deindustrialization, post-industrial economies, neoliberalism, or casino capitalism. --Christine J. Walley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Author Information

Chloe E. Taft is a Mellon Postdoctoral Associate in the Integrated Humanities in the American Studies Program at Yale University.

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