The end of utopia: Imagining the rise and fall of Gary, Indiana

The modern history of Gary, Indiana, is an example of how utopian ideals rooted in the process of industrialization of the U.S. in the late nineteenth century resulted in segregation and disillusionment over the course of the twentieth century. This study not only traces the rise and fall of an industrial city but also the demise of the utopian dreams that accompanied American industrial growth, especially the growth of Chicago. Gary served as a crucible of American cultural responses to industrialization because it represented both the triumphs of modern technology and centralization as well as the fears of disorder and social chaos. It was in the industrial geography and language of cities such as Gary that the new ideologies of modernity were implemented and transformed into physical structures and public policy.; Designed and constructed by US Steel as a steel producing center, Gary became a site of contestation over the meaning of modernization because it was intended not to solve but to contain the seemingly inherent dangers of industrialization. Within the public imagination the mills of Gary were a triumph of industrial might while the city became a dystopian counterpoint onto which people projected their hopes and concerns about industrial society, be that immigrant radicalism, industrial pollution, or racial politics. Moreover within the city itself, these same conditions became the basis for segregated ethnic and racial communities. All participants, however, defined industrial spaces not by broad community but rather strict separation.