Steel: The Diary of a Furnace Worker

A first-person diary records months spent working at open-hearth and blast furnaces, moving from clean-up and helper roles to semi-skilled positions while describing the constant heat, dust, long shifts, and the comradeship among workers. The narrative mixes sensory, procedural, and personal detail about daily labor, wages, and factory rhythms with observations on the cultural and linguistic makeup of crews, industrial organization, and tensions between labor and management. Interwoven are reflections on the broader role of the industry in the national economy and a recurring argument for better understanding workers' perspectives to lessen conflict.