OUT OF THIS FURNACE:

A Walking Tour of Thomas Bell's Novel

produced by Dave Demarest

and directed by Steffi Domike

1990, twenty minute video, Pittsburgh, PA

Thomas Bell's Out of This Furnace, a classic novel of immigration and labor in industrial America, tells the story of three generations of a Slovak family working in the steel mills of Braddock, PA. First published in 1941, and reprinted in 1976 by the University of Pittsburgh Press, the book has been a national success, selling over 70,000 copies. It has been widely used in high school and college classrooms, introducing a new generation to the lives and experiences of the immigrant workers whose blood and sweat built the industrial empires of the early twentieth century.

This program brings to life the characters and locale of the novel. David Demarest, author of the book's afterword, takes a walking tour of Braddock, the home of Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill, contrasting its appearance today with historic photographs.

(shot and edited on BetaCam video)

Available from the Labor Relations Center, IUP.