EBOOK
About
"To the Mill and Back" is the story of two young men who, at different times in the second half of the 20th century, work at a textile mill in the northeastern United States. In 1971, their paths cross, and they form a mentor/student relationship that sees the younger of the two meet a variety of characters who represent American society of that period, and he also finds out not only about himself, but about the impending death of an industry that helped sustain generations before him.
The characters are based on the types of persons one would meet in an industrial environment in the period after World War II. For a time, American industry boomed, but about 20 years after the war, it began to become obvious that many of the factories, mills and other facilities that employed thousands of people would soon be closing. Massive steel mills, for example, shut down, and the towns around them fell into disarray. Some were repurposed, but others were just left to rot or be demolished. For example, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a huge Capitol Records facility where many of the Beatles records sold in the United States were pressed sat empty for decades after those records were produced. Across the street, a massive textile mill closed in the 1970s and sat dormant before it was eventually torn down.
This book looks to that sad future, but deals more with the people who would be tossed aside, through the eyes of the two young men -- one who was young in the early 1950s, and one young in 1971 -- who see it coming before anyone else, and who bond with each other.
The characters they meet are all fascinating, and readers will surely recognize familiar faces among them
The characters are based on the types of persons one would meet in an industrial environment in the period after World War II. For a time, American industry boomed, but about 20 years after the war, it began to become obvious that many of the factories, mills and other facilities that employed thousands of people would soon be closing. Massive steel mills, for example, shut down, and the towns around them fell into disarray. Some were repurposed, but others were just left to rot or be demolished. For example, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a huge Capitol Records facility where many of the Beatles records sold in the United States were pressed sat empty for decades after those records were produced. Across the street, a massive textile mill closed in the 1970s and sat dormant before it was eventually torn down.
This book looks to that sad future, but deals more with the people who would be tossed aside, through the eyes of the two young men -- one who was young in the early 1950s, and one young in 1971 -- who see it coming before anyone else, and who bond with each other.
The characters they meet are all fascinating, and readers will surely recognize familiar faces among them