Living Here in Allentown: The Effects of Deindustrialization

What is deindustrialization, what are its effects, and how is that process illuminated in the Billy Joel song “Allentown”?

Know (knowledge):

• The definition of deindustrialization
• The history of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation
• The adverse economic effects the demise of Bethlehem Steel had on a city, its people, and its community
• How the Billy Joel song “Allentown” humanized deindustrialization in the United States

Mastery Objective

• Students will be able to describe the adverse economic effects of deindustrialization on a city, its people, and its community by examining the impact of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s bankruptcy on the local economy and community of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania while analyzing the lyrics to Billy Joel’s song, “Allentown.”

In this lesson, students will explore the economic impacts of deindustrialization by examining the history of Bethlehem Steel, reading testimonials from people affected by the plant closure, and analyzing the lyrics to Billy Joel's song "Allentown."

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation began as the Bethlehem Iron Company in 1863. For more than 100 years, it produced steel in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania at its primary steel mill in Bethlehem. During this time, it employed tens of thousands of local workers who produced steel products used to build many iconic buildings and bridges in the United States, including the Chrysler Building, Madison Square Garden, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Bethlehem Steel was also instrumental in producing armaments the United States military used in World War I and World War II, as well as countless products used to make automobiles and other consumer goods.

At one point, Bethlehem Steel was the second-largest steel producer in the world and the 14th-largest industrial corporation in the United States. However, this began to change in the late 1950s as poor management decisions, adversarial relations with its unionized workforce, and the availability of lower-cost foreign steel took a toll on Bethlehem Steel’s bottom line.

By the late 1970s, Bethlehem Steel was experiencing declining sales, massive worker layoffs, and obsolescence within the steel industry. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation produced steel at its flagship Bethlehem, Pennsylvania facility for the final time in 1995. Its declaration of bankruptcy in 2001 marked the end of an era for steel production in the United States, and serves as an example of the effects of deindustrialization.

Bethlehem's decline and its effects on the surrounding towns was artistically captured, perhaps most notably by Billy Joel. In his song "Allentown," Joel attempts to capture the deindustrialization of the U.S. steel industry in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley in the 1970s and 1980s, symbolizing working-class hardship, fading opportunities, and the uncertain future of American laborers. Joel wrote "Allentown" as a reflection of “real America,” symbolizing towns hit by industrial decline and a generation whose once limitless future was abruptly constrained when factories closed.

• Display images from Gallery Walk – The People and Businesses of Bethlehem around the room.