Book examines how Cold War technology propelled Pittsburgh renaissance
Patrick Vitale authors 'Nuclear Suburbs'
Willimantic, CT (06/07/2021) — Pittsburgh native Patrick Vitale, assistant professor of geography at Eastern Connecticut State University, recently authored "Nuclear Suburbs: Cold War Technoscience and the Pittsburgh Renaissance." The book examines the suburbanization of the Greater Pittsburgh area during the Cold War, and how city officials worked with corporate executives to remake the city for a new class of workers.
Pittsburgh emerged as the hub of the nuclear industry in the 1950s and 1960s, hosting more privately employed nuclear engineers and scientists than anywhere else in the country. This period of intensifying relations between the United States and the Soviet Union coincided with the "Pittsburgh renaissance," a time of rebranding for a city with a reputation of being gritty and working-class.
Vitale says city officials used this era of technological momentum to "project an image of a modern city for the middle class . . . unpolluted and post-industrial." The only problem? Pittsburgh's largest populations were left out of the business and city leaders' vision of the future.
"This was not a renaissance for people of color and the working class," said Vitale, noting that the city's neighborhoods of color were the areas targeted for "urban renewal." The Lower Hill District, for example, known as the "Harlem of Pittsburgh," was targeted for the construction of a cultural center.
Yet, as the city changed shape to attract a wealthier - and whiter - class of scientists and professionals, their workplaces and residences sprouted up not in the center city, but in the surrounding suburbs. Vitale explained that incentives from the federal government encouraged the move to the suburbs to decentralize the industry: "They were worried about having an easy target for the Soviets during the Cold War."
Vitale finds, however, that the major companies of the time - such as Westinghouse Electric Corporation - were looking to leave the city either way in order "to appeal to scientists and engineers who didn't want to live in Pittsburgh."
The story of the Pittsburgh renaissance can be applied to industrial regions across the country, and "Nuclear Suburbs" explains how post-industrial renewal is often rooted in injustice.
"'Nuclear Suburbs' offers a new and important insight into the complex relationship between the Cold War, suburbanization and post-industrial capitalism," wrote Lily Geismer, author and history professor at Claremont McKenna College, in a book review. "Patrick Vitale expertly reveals how deeply enmeshed scientists' lives and work were in the economic and spatial restructuring of cities like Pittsburgh. It provides a powerful, important retort to anyone suggesting that science and knowledge workers are the solution to urban problems."
"Nuclear Suburbs" was published by University of Minnesota Press in February 2021.
###
Eastern Connecticut State University is the state of Connecticut's public liberal arts university, serving more than 4,000 students annually at its Willimantic campus and satellite locations. In addition to attracting students from 162 of Connecticut's 169 towns, Eastern also draws students from 33 other states and 20 countries. A residential campus offering 40 majors and 60 minors, Eastern offers students a strong liberal art foundation grounded in a variety of applied learning opportunities. Ranked as the #1 public regional university in New England by U.S. News and World Report in its 2021 Best Colleges ratings, Eastern has also been awarded 'Green Campus' status by the Princeton Review 11 years in a row. For more information, visit www.easternct.edu.
Media Attachments
Book cover
Vitale headshot
Eastern Connecticut State University
Michael Rouleau, (860) 465-0172, rouleaum@easternct.edu; Edward Osborn, (860) 465-5043, osborne@easternct.eduShare this Story
Recent News
- Media Advisory: Eastern's Day of Giving to serve hundreds on Thanksgiving Eve
- 'Eurydice' reimagines Orpheus myth, concludes Eastern's fall theatre season
- Eastern's dual enrollment grows 60 percent in one year
- Eastern to host Veterans Day ceremony with VA Commissioner Ronald Welch
- 'Diasporican' art exhibition celebrates Puerto Rican culture and identity
- Princeton Review names Eastern a 'Green College' 15 years running
- 'Diasporican': Eastern to host art exhibition with National Puerto Rican Diaspora Museum
- Eastern's Music Department announces fall concert schedule
- Eastern announces fall 2024 'University Hour' events
- Multi-media performance remembers an American tragedy during election season