The Myth of the Steel Workers

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The myth emerges from what is the true track record, right? Of high levels of economic growth. The ways a had cashed out in rising wages and then in secondary things like home ownership,. pensions and health benefits. I think that tha kind of generational memory of it is an important part of the myth. So it's not baseless or i tholt. But i think it's really important to be careful about how we understand what happened.

Historian Gabriel Winant discusses The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America. It's a fascinating study of the emergence of the service sector and a new working class out of the wreckage of deindustrialization through the story of the rise and fall of unionized steel in Pittsburgh and its replacement by a massive hospital industry. Listen to my past interview with Winant on the social worlds that make US politics and how that sociality is rooted in the economy, carceral state, social media, religion, and more thedigradio.com/podcast/the-social-question-with-gabriel-winant Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet, by David Carlin and Nicole Walker rosemetalpress.com/books/the-after-normal