Portraits in Steel: An Illustrated History of Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation »

This history of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation paints a gritty portrait of the successes and failures of the American steel industry as a whole, and J&L Steel in particular. From the beginning, its workers were intensely loyal and creative. The 131-year life of this "American Business" is presented from its origins as one of the many struggling ironmakers in the mid-19th century through its leadership in technological innovation and progressive worker/management relations in the early 20th century to its demise in 1984.. "Portraits in Steel is the authors' effort to help explain and to save something of the heritage of a once-vital company and to portray its wide-ranging impact on the local and national community.