Reading Iron Pioneer: Henry W. Oliver 1840 to 1904 by Henry Oliver Evans (1942, Dutton and Company) affords an account of another world—during the climax of the Industrial Revolution—through the life and times of Pittsburgh’s perfect capitalist. Beginning with a phrase in Latin, ending with a poem by Tennyson and logging main lines, this family narrative about a forgotten titan both concretizes and explains the archetypical American industrialist. This one’s a tall, slender, self-made man of ability named Henry Oliver. You’ve probably not heard of Mr. Oliver unless you’re from Pittsburgh. This is another sign of Western impoverishment. Henry Oliver is a name every American ought to know. Iron Pioneer excavates the reason why.

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