Industrial Valley

by Ruth McKenney, Daniel Nelson (Introduction)

Overview

Ruth McKenney's compelling novel of class and industrial conflict in Akron, Ohio, first appeared in 1939 and was widely acclaimed. McKenney was a capable journalist who had spent a year and a half in Akron, the heart of the tire industry, a city that she said "smells like a rubber band smoldering in an ashtray."

Industrial Valley vividly portrays an industrial city crippled by the country's economic failures and also provides a stirring example of fiction predicated on social and political principles. It will intrigue readers for its contemporary as well as its historical implications. The images McKenney evokes of workers confused and enraged by a moribund economy seem startlingly relevant today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875461830
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	03/31/1992
Series:	Literature of American Labor
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.91(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction by Daniel Nelson
To Begin With
Book One: JANUARY 1, 1932, TO JUNE 16, 1933
Book Two: JUNE 26, 1933, TO FEBRUARY 14, 1936
Book Three: FEBRUARY 14, 1936, TO MARCH 21, 1936
And Three Years After

Editorial Reviews

For sheer dramatic excitement, for effective organization as a story, there isn't one among all the strike novels to match this essentially true story.

New York Herald Tribune

Industrial Valley is perhaps the best American example of proletarian literature. Even though it is based completely on fact, I also offer it as one of our best collective novels.

New Republic

Vividly portrays an industrial city crippled by the country's economic failures and also provides a stirring example of fiction predicated on social and political principles.

Midwest Book Review

This is reporting with a purpose; it is fact selected to provide illumination, not fact reported as a record of rainfall, and the result is brilliant history.

New Masses

Industrial Valley is perhaps the best American example of proletarian literature. Even though it is based completely on fact, I also offer it as one of our best collective novels.

-- "New Republic"

For sheer dramatic excitement, for effective organization as a story, there isn't one among all the strike novels to match this essentially true story.

-- "New York Herald Tribune"

This is reporting with a purpose; it is fact selected to provide illumination, not fact reported as a record of rainfall, and the result is brilliant history.

-- "New Masses"

Vividly portrays an industrial city crippled by the country's economic failures and also provides a stirring example of fiction predicated on social and political principles.

-- "Midwest Book Review"

From the Publisher

McKenney's compelling account of class and industrial conflict in Akron, Ohio is reproduced, with the exception of a new introduction by Daniel Nelson, from the original version published by Harcourt, Brace in 1939. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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