Allen Dieterich-Ward is an associate professor of history at Shippensburg University and the author of Beyond Rust: Metropolitan Pittsburgh and the Fate of Industrial America. The book comes out this month and looks at how industry built the Pittsburgh region; how the rethinking and large-scale redevelopment of the city after World War II remade the city; and how post-industrial Pittsburgh is shaping up.
He spoke with Keystone Crossroads’ Irina Zhorov about what lessons today’s civic leaders can learn from Pittsburgh’s history. Among the most important, he said, are making urban areas into places to live; valuing the dense, urban architecture and infrastructure of the industrial age; and creating effective institutions to make sure ideas turn into reality.
Dieterich-Ward will do a reading, discussion and book signing Dec. 3 at the Senator John Heinz History Center.
