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Wheels
of Fortune The Story of Rubber in Akron by Steve Love and David Giffels Foreword by Rita Dove 359 pp.,
illustrations, index, notes Other books by Steve Love |
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| Wheels of Fortune
is a tale of two cities---both of
them Akron. One city, built on rubber, turned itself into a model for
Middle America industrial success. The other city has had to learn to
live on in rubber's wake, to remake itself, to come to terms with its
remade self. To tell this tale of two cities is to tell the tale of
America's rubber industry. The stories interlock like tire and wheel.
From its earliest days, Akron has been a city of multiple incarnations:
canal boat stopover, farm machinery manufacturer, cereal maker. But for
more than a century after Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich came to town
in 1870, Akron was the Rubber Capital of the World. Its people worked
in the rubber shops of Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone, General,
Seiberling, Mohawk, and Sun. They lived in Goodyear Heights and
Firestone Park, the neighborhoods fostered by their employers. Even the
air they breathed was heavy with the odor of rubber. To some, it stank.
To others, it smelled like money.
By the 1980s, much of the rubber industry and, thus, Akron had disappeared. Not into the night. Not overnight. Everyone had seen it coming for years. Union and rubber companies management squared off against each other as if the city were a boxing ring. There were no winners. Akron was the loser. First, the plants closed, the production moving south. Then the company headquarters, with the exception of Goodyear, followed. The people rubber left behind discovered they had not only their memories but also the ability to remake Akron into a center for polymer knowledge, a remnant of rubber research and a bridge between the two cities. Wheels of Fortune is their story, these people who made more than rubber. They made lives--and a city. "[Wheels of Fortune]
is a narrative of daring and determination, greed and compassion,
triumphs wrested from adversity, and generosity borne from injustices
righted. In the course of this journey, you will see how Akron became
what it undeniably still is today: a unique American city built with
vision and grit and love, a monument to the resilience of the human
spirit and its capacity to create, to explore, and to persevere." |
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David Giffels is a staff writer for the Akron Beacon Journal. A native of Akron, Giffels completed B.A.s in English and Mass Media and an M.A. in English from The University of Akron. |
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Steve Love, a writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, earned his B.A. in journalism from California State University at Chico. He is a member of Sigma Delta Chi, a society of professional journalists, and coauthored The Golden Dream with Jerry Faust. |
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