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DEINDUSTRIALIZATION IS NOT
simply an economic process, it is also a social and
cultural phenomenon. The rusting detritus of our
industrial past-the wrecked hulks of factories,
abandoned machinery too large to remove, and
now-useless infrastructures-has for decades been a
part of the North American landscape.
In recent years these
modern ruins have become cultural attractions,
drawing increasing numbers of adventurers, artists,
and those curious about a forgotten heritage.
Through a unique blend of oral history,
photographs, and interpretive essays, Corporate
Wasteland investigates this fascinating terrain
and the phenomenon of its loss and
rediscovery.
Steven High and David
W. Lewis begin by exploring an emerging
aesthetic-"the deindustrial sublime." They explain
how the ritualized demolition of landmark
industrial structures serves as a dramatic
punctuation between changing eras. Forcing readers
to look beyond nostalgia, High and Lewis
reinterpret our deindustrialized landscape as a
historical and imaginative challenge to the ways in
which we comprehend and respond to the profound
disruptions wrought by globalization.
Steven High is
Canada Research Chair in Public History at
Concordia University in Montreal. He is the author
of Industrial Sunset: The Making of North
America's Rust Belt, 1969-1984.
David W. Lewis
is a photographer and the author of The Art of
Bromoil and Transfer and The Passion Pit: A
Tribute to the Drive-in.
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