This fictional account of three generations of Slovak immigrant workers in the steel mills of Braddock, Pennsylvania is based on the actual life experiences of author Thomas Bell (originally Belejcak).

Dawley offers a comprehensive synthesis of Progressive history to date, and makes a compelling case for the broader historical significance of the period.

Hofstadter, a brilliant synthesis historian who convincingly weaves together several secondary studies into compelling arguments, suggests psychological explanations for the Progressive movement. He attributes the middle-class support for reform to a widespread sense of status anxiety amidst the social upheaval of the industrial age.

Kolko offers a new interpretation of Progressivism which focuses on the manner in which the movement was compromised or even co-opted by business interests, rather than the previous discussions of who constituted Progressives and what motivated them.

Mowry was one of the first historians to challenge the glowing consensus on Progressivism (crafted by many Progressive historians) as a grass roots movement against special interests. He identifies some of the elitism behind certain Progressive groups, and uses this background to mount an explanation of their motives.

Wiebe strikes a more moderate position between the old Progressive historians and the controversial revisions of Hofstadter and Mowry. He argues that middle-class reformers sought to impose order on a society they felt had become fragmented by rapid growth and enormous change.