Wheels of Fortune

by Love, Steve; Giffels, David; Van Tassel, Debbie

• ISBN13: 9781884836374
• ISBN10: 1884836372
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Akron Pr

Summary

Wheels of Fortune is the story of the rise and fall and transformation of the rubber industry in Akron, a book rich in anecdotes and photographs. This is history told by people who lived it, on the factory floors and in executive offices, their voices ringing through a narrative that has all the heroes and villains and epic sweep of a Steinbeck novel. For more than a century after Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich came to town, in 1870, Akron, Ohio was the rubber capital of the world. The city prospered along with the tire factories, becoming a model for Middle America's industrial success. Its people worked in the rubber shops and lived in neighborhoods fostered by companies like Goodyear and Firestone. Even the air they breathed was heavy with the odors of rubber. But by the 1980s, most of the rubber industry had gone south, first the plants and then the company headquarters, a result of stubbornness in the union ranks, intransigence in the corporate boardrooms, and takeovers by foreign competitors. Akron began an awkward metamorphosis from a stronghold of blue-collar labor to a research and development center, finding its new identity in the broader fields of polymer science and technology.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii	(2)
Preface	ix	(2)
Acknowledgments	xi	(2)
Introduction	xiii
1 Tire Town No More	1	(10)
2 The Rubber Barons	11	(18)
3 Standing Room Only	29	(8)
4 A Seiberling Legacy	37	(9)
5 The Company Town	46	(9)
6 Rubber Shop Royalty	55	(13)
7 Goodyear's Guiding Force	68	(12)
8 Hometown Heroes	80	(8)
9 Rubber Workers Unite	88	(12)
10 Synthetic Rubber	100	(12)
11 A War Brings Progress	112	(18)
12 Lighter than Air	130	(13)
13 The Radial Invasion	143	(12)
14 Triennial Passion Plays	155	(20)
15 What Went Wrong	175	(14)
16 Akron Plants Close Down	189	(12)
17 A Niche Company Survives	201	(10)
18 Philanthropy and Artistry	211	(15)
19 The Changing City	226	(13)
20 Goodyear Is Raided	239	(16)
21 Nevin Reengineers Firestone	255	(12)
22 Goodyear Rebounds	267	(10)
23 Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday	277	(11)
24 Rubber's Remains	288	(11)
25 A Polymer Legacy	299	(13)
26 The Changing of the Guard	312	(18)
27 Life after Rubber	330	(13)
Sources	343	(10)
Index	353