Steel City Gospel: Protestant Laity and Reform in Progressive-Era Pittsburgh

Steel City Gospeltells the complex story of Pittsburgh citizens' struggle to define and eliminate the problems plaguing their city during the Progressive Era. Despite liberal churches' desire to "stay out of politics," Pittsburgh's socially conscious Protestant laity undertook and promoted the city's most significant reform. Demonstrating the power religious language, ideas, and institutions had in shaping progressive reform in Pittsburgh, this cross-disciplinary study addresses significant debates in the fields of Progressive-Era political history and American religious history, while telling the story of an industrial city in a crucial era of change.