Buy new:
-25% $18.81
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: Libraryx
$18.81 with 25 percent savings
List Price: $25.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 16 hrs 15 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$18.81 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$18.81
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
Libraryx
Sold by
Libraryx
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$11.04
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include "From the library of" labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys, dvds, etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include "From the library of" labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys, dvds, etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! See less
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 16 hrs 15 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$18.81 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$18.81
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Thomas Bell
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Out of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America Paperback – June 30, 1976

by Thomas Bell (Author), David P. Demarest (Afterword)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 422 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$18.81","priceAmount":18.81,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"18","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"81","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"aqCdhwiH8dirE6UFREAsGAIHvxKu18lPA8ABnNgOFA8IgAJz32%2BYYQoKKhXTQ%2ByVJNDwoCzH8tzkGdTunCDXHz0ThXekskahiCwMFRnAZOx8rSnqUp%2BYguyM5t6rPJdfh3hXCIg%2FTeLaY0vuRyaazVvHUECdy0LYM9wWE3dxDHeGrHr1O%2FXjkAv3N3b4r2iF","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$11.04","priceAmount":11.04,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"04","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"aqCdhwiH8dirE6UFREAsGAIHvxKu18lPkiGi2NiL905xEw%2Bhn4HkEnhshMND3plq4D3C4zwxJUASgnkHL7HLNaevgbvL8ZWeewtGapvCTxLh21TBk5UAh7wckeZ6nSog%2FuzX4KtEOlT5t9qte53IoGzG7kJLjutLC4OVUIM7VkV3pX1jA%2FwGckSxkjANbF%2FD","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Out of This Furnace is Thomas Bell’s most compelling achievement.  Its story of three generations of an immigrant Slovak family -- the Dobrejcaks -- still stands as a fresh and extraordinary accomplishment.

The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel mills of Braddock, Pennsylvania, and his eventual downfall through foolish financial speculations and an extramarital affair. The second generation is represented by Kracha’s daughter, Mary, who married Mike Dobrejcak, a steel worker. Their decent lives, made desperate by the inhuman working conditions of the mills, were held together by the warm bonds of their family life, and Mike’s political idealism set an example for the children. Dobie Dobrejcak, the third generation, came of age in the 1920s determined not to be sacrificed to the mills. His involvement in the successful unionization of the steel industry climaxed a half-century struggle to establish economic justice for the workers.

Out of This Furnace is a document of ethnic heritage and of a violent and cruel period in our history, but it is also a superb story. The writing is strong and forthright, and the novel builds constantly to its triumphantly human conclusion.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    424 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Pittsburgh Press
  4. Publication date
    June 30, 1976
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0822952734
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0822952732
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Out of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America
$18.81
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Libraryx and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of Growing Up Poor and Black in the Rural South
$9.09
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Things They Carried
$11.98
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In a powerful novel that spans three generations of a Slovak family, Thomas Bell vividly tells the story of immigrants and their children who lived, toiled, and died in America's mill towns.”
—Journal of American Ethnic History

"I use Out of This Furnace as a first reading in my American History course because it provides an overview of the period, introduces the idea of industrialization from a worker point of view, and provides insights into immigrant ethnic communities in twentieth-century America."
—Lawrence Levine, George Mason University



"A wonderful book to use for a survey of American history."
—Mary Frederickson, University of Alabama

From the Back Cover

The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel mills of Braddock, and his eventual downfall through foolish financial speculations and an extramarital affair.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Pittsburgh Press; 1st edition (June 30, 1976)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 424 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0822952734
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0822952732
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 422 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Thomas Bell

Thomas Bell

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
422 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Michael J. Myers
5.0 out of 5 stars Old but informative--three generations to assimilation
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
The book was published in 1940. The author was perhaps 35 years old at the time. He describes three generations of a family that originated in a village in Slovakia. His family, and others were from a small village in Slovakia. They all wound up in the steel mills at Braddock Pennsylvania. The Irish laborers, who had come before them, derided them as "Hunkies". The writer describes the experiences of the first two generations (1885 or to 1920) in a way loosely based on his own family. Steel mills are dangerous places and people get killed or severely injured.

The male in the third generation becomes a union organizer and that part of the story is not based on the writer's own family experience. Rather it's based on the notes and other information from a different person who was in fact a union organizer. The story ends with the birth of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Industrial workers such as the Hunkies "didn't get no respect" from the American Federation of Labor which favored skilled craftsmen as union members.

All of these novels about the immigrant experience of various ethnic groups are interesting. It might be Rolvaag;s "Giants of The Earth" [Norwegians on the prairie" or more recently Karl Marlantes "Deep River' Finnish immigrants in the logging industry in Southwest Washington state. But each them has a lot to say about the lived experience of different groups.

They are also reflective of their time. Out of This Furnace was published in 1940. The third generation "Hunkie" is now assimilated--he expresses the American creed with optimism which might appear a bit much in these days. But it's a good book, a good story, and worth the reader's time.
Helpful
 Report
Paul Haspel
4.0 out of 5 stars Over three generations, a journey from adversity to hope
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2012
Verified Purchase
Thomas Bell's "Out of This Furnace" is a powerful saga that chronicles the struggles and triumphs of three generations of the Dobrejcaks, a Slovak-American family in the Pittsburgh-area steel-making city of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Bell's clean, disciplined, no-nonsense prose style complements well his story of people who cope with entrenched ethnic discrimination while seeking to build their own American dream within the dangerous world of the Braddock steel mills. Because Bell drew upon his own family's history (his original family name was Belejcak), he writes with authenticity and verisimilitude about the steel towns -- not just the specifics of a mill's operation, but also the grim look of a steel-making community and the strained social dynamic between supervisors and workers.

In Bell's multi-generational saga, the immigrant first generation is personified by George Kracha, who comes to America, struggles to cope with the bewildering transition from old-country traditions to a new life in the United States, and makes some bad choices that cancel out the initial promise of his life in America. The second generation is represented by Mike and Mary Dobrejcak, who work hard and do their best but run up against tragic circumstance. And the third generation is embodied by Dobie, a young man who learns, through becoming involved in labor activism, how to fight back effectively against the injustices of 20th-century American industrial life.

Pittsburgh-area readers may particularly enjoy the way in which this novel chronicles part of the history of Western Pennsylvania. This University of Pittsburgh edition of "Out of This Furnace" includes a helpful afterword by Pennsylvania literature scholar David Demarest of Carnegie-Mellon University. I think that Bell's ancestors who labored so hard in the steel mills would have taken pride in the spirit of conscientious workmanship with which Bell crafted this strong and effective novel.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
M L Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars Very strong writing, good story, relevant today as much as it was in the 1940's
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2018
Verified Purchase
I bought this book primarily for its historical content, and I was absolutely delighted by how much I enjoyed it. I became involved in the interesting characters and powerful description immediately, and really couldn't put the book down. What impressed me beyond the story itself was the quality of the writing. Thomas Bell is an amazing writer! His level of detail is exquisite. He crafts a good character and is not afraid to make those characters flawed. The raw honesty of his language is remarkably contemporary.

Yes, this is a historical novel about immigration in the late 19C and early 20C. Based on the author's own family story, its historical accuracy is impressive. I can see from other reviewers that this has been used in history courses; this book truly has the authority to be taught and discussed in any class on immigration history. The message it bears, about how the Slovak immigrants were treated, is very relevant to us today. So many groups have come into the USA and been treated as less than human, despite the fact that their labor fueled the large American industrial corporations and brought them great profit. Every United States citizen who traces her or his heritage to an immigrant needs to read this book.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report