Pittsburgh's economy had begun to separate from steel long before the mills closed, as Christopher P. Briem argues. He follows the region from its first coal survey to its present reinvention.

Readical Key Points

• Economic history of the Pittsburgh region in sixteen chapters and five parts, from the steel era to the present
• Subjects include the pursuit of new heavy industry, universities and hospitals as employers, the energy economy and the places left behind
• Described by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as "an excellent history of the region's defeats and resurrections," as quoted by the publisher
• Paperback, 364 pages, Kent State University Press, 2026

Briem arranges the story in five movements: the steel boom, the years the region would not see the change coming, the damage of the collapse, the search for a replacement, and who has been left behind. He examines efforts to lure back smokestack industry, the growth of universities and medical centers, and the region's place in energy. The claim that Pittsburgh's fortunes split from steel before the 1980s is his, drawn from decades of regional research.

The book serves readers from the region and those who left it, people planning the future of former industrial cities, and students of urban and economic history. Briem is a native of Bloomfield and the South Side, and local knowledge sits beside the data. It reads the Steel City's story in the ledgers rather than the legends.

About the Author

Christopher P. Briem works as a regional economist in the Urban and Regional Analysis program of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, according to his publisher. His research has appeared in Economic Development Quarterly and the Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, and the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have quoted him on the region's economy.

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