The "Pig Iron Aristocracy" of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania not only was the foundation of American manufacturing, but the root of our present day political parties. It is a little known story, but it has popular appeal throughout the Midwest and Mideast. Inspired by Federalist Alexander Hamilton, the Pig Iron Aristocracy brought capitalism to America and formed the core of Henry Clay's Whig Party. These entrepreneur capitalists developed America's iron, steel, glass, coal, and machine manufacturing industries. These Pig Iron Whigs would fuse social values and economic nationalism to promote abolition and form the Republican Party. Men like "Pig Iron Kelly" would dominate the post Civil War Congress, and make America the industrial giant of the world. They brought Henry Clay's "American System" into being. They would finance an alliance of management and labor that led to a realignment of America's politics in the 1890s. The Pig Iron Aristocracy was at the heart of the McKinley Republicans, which stood for the protection and growth of American industry. Never before, and never since, had common laborers stood politically united with management and capitalists with the goal of American dominance. An index to names, places and subjects enhances this work.
Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr., Ph.D.
2008, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 186 pp.
ISBN: 9780788445156
101-S4515
