Iron Artisans by Ronald L. Lewis

Iron Artisans
Welsh Immigrants & the American Age of Steel
by Ronald L. Lewis
University of Pittsburgh Press, 300 pp., hardcover $40

When the U.S. was becoming the preeminent industrial power in the world, iron, steel and tinplate manufacturing were at the forefront of that transformation. But as Ronald L. Lewis demonstrates clearly, America’s might owed a great deal to the relatively small number of Welsh immigrants who brought their skills, their labor, and much of their technological knowhow with them. Although they represented a small percentage of the British who came, the Welsh had an outsized influence among the managers, owners and union leaders who shaped the dynamics of the industries at the heart of the American economy. Iron Artisans brilliantly explores the immigration patterns, culture, politics and contributions of the Welsh.

Weaving together cumulative data with compelling personal stories, Lewis tells a truly transnational story. These skilled iron and steel workers were attentive to opportunities in both South Wales and the U.S. When conditions were unfavorable in Wales, immigration increased; when conditions improved, many returned. In their new homes in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, immigrants built institutions that maintained their language, culture, worklife and community. At the same time, they helped create companies that competed with and undermined the factories in Wales. Ultimately, geography mattered. Try as they might to replicate their lives in a more favorable economic climate, American capitalists wrested control of the industry from the Welsh artisans and transformed it once again, driving out the skilled workers and putting an end to Welsh immigration.

This is at once a heroic yet tragic story of immigrants seeking to improve their lives and sustain their way of life. In the hands of a master historian, Iron Artisans tells this story with insight, complexity and humanity.

Ken Fones-Wolf
West Virginia University