Good with Their Hands Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt

"This is a brilliant study, warm and frequently thrilling, of an inspired combination of subjects. Postindustrial American urban culture has found its great poet-theorist in Carlo Rotella."—William Finnegan, author of Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country "In the hands of others, we have learned much about the process of deindustrialization. Rotella powerfully brings the reader to the core of these socio-economic transitions in a manner that is almost palpable in its ability to connect the reader to any one of his subjects. Rotella held me, taught me, opened my eyes to an appreciation of new ways of seeing. The writing is electric, the broader conceptual framework is rich and complex, and his touch is deft throughout the book."—Nick Salvatore, coauthor of We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webber