Cathedrals of Industry: Exploring the Factories and Infrastructure That Made America

Photographer Horowitz (Divine New York) and NYU adjunct business professor Holtje (The Power of Storytelling) team up for a perceptive photographic survey of America’s industrial landscape. Taken from the 1970s to the present, Horowitz’s images showcase the raw materials and infrastructure that have supported U.S. manufacturing: thread spinning machines and grain elevator release valves, hydroelectric plants, and factories both operational (Manhattan’s M&S Schmalberg Silk Flowers, in business since 1916) and defunct (the Bethlehem Steel production plant in Lackawanna, N.Y., which shuttered in the 1980s). Enriched by short essays providing historical and geographical context, the images reveal both the grandeur of mid-20th-century manufacturing, “an era that instilled pride and defined the lives of millions of Americans,” and how quickly it came to an end. Along the way, Horowitz and Holtje take care not to overlook the “inequality, discrimination, and labor strife” that were also part of the “golden age” of U.S. industry. The results are revealing and often beautiful. Photos. (Nov.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated how long M&S Schmalberg Silk Flowers has been in business. It opened in 1916, not the 1940s.