Working Class Solidarity; Rebuilding YoungstownUndoubtedly the work and the location influence the surrounding environment. Youngstown, Ohio, is highlighted as one in particular. As a result, “steel production fueled the area's economy and defined its identity” (68). The city was depicted in newspapers, artwork, postcards, and many texts as both “impressive and attractive” (75) and “imposing, confusing, and uninviting” (86). Considering the contrasting representations, steelmaking also “suggests a key element of conflict in the community” for which it was so clearly creating an identity (69). At the end of the second chapter of Steel Town USA, the authors, Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo define the importance of steel production in Youngstown, Ohio “as an important element of community life, a source of identity and solidarity, a activity that brings pride and satisfaction to individuals and the community (129)”. The author's statement, “…the steel mill is almost synonymous with Youngstown,” defining itself as organized labor and steel production” (68). Linkon and Russo convey ideas about hard physical labor, with an eye on the anguish of steel workers using words such as virtue, pride and sense of belonging, which for a typical situation would convey positive representations. While most would think of these words, virtue, pride and belonging as associations of working class solidarity, clear identity and value, the author instead uses these words to allow the reader to better understand the misery that steel workers have had to face. By connecting workers' lack of control to that of social conflict in their community, the authors want readers to understand both sides, allowing the gap of struggle to be bridged by repairing Youngstow... middle of paper... .... ture, “we must first begin by understanding the complex but deeply appreciated meaning of the work and place that formed the backdrop against which deindustrialization was staged” (67). With Linkon and Russo's emphasis on Youngstown's depictions of social and class conflict, it becomes apparent that anyone who grew up in a town that based its identity on work could relate. The problem is not in the past, it is in the future. With a better understanding of the struggle of labor and place, today's youth can help mend Youngstown's identity by building on the working-class solidarity gap that was created not long ago. The connection then would be that “the struggle for meaning in Youngstown will not end when the mills close,” however it will end when people no longer believe in themselves” (130). That's when the connection between work and place is lost.