STEEL BAR Web Events Feature Gilded Age, Making of Book
November 2020 saw two well-attended webinar events on Ron Schuler's American history book, The Steel Bar: Pittsburgh Lawyers and the Making of America.
In the first, on November 11, 2020 for the Sewickley Valley Historical Society, Ron Schuler spoke to an audience of approximately 80 viewers on the Gilded Age relationship between two larger-than-life tycoons, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. In "The Gilded Age in Four Acts," Schuler discussed four important events in American history -- the Johnstown Flood of 1889, the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, the settlement of the World's Greatest Lawsuit between Carnegie and Frick in 1901, and the creation of America's first billion-dollar corporation, U.S. Steel, in 1901. "Each of them were seminal events in the growing power of the American corporation in the hands of these 19th century tycoons. They each occurred in and around Pittsburgh, and were each influenced by the interactions between Carnegie and Frick and their very talented lawyers." Carnegie and Frick's lawyers of choice, James Hay Reed and Philander Knox, were the founders of the present day global law firm of Reed Smith; Reed briefly served as a federal judge, while Philander Knox served three presidents as Attorney General and Secretary of State, and as a U.S. Senator. "The influence of Pittsburgh lawyers on American political and commercial institutions around the turn of the 20th century really begins to come to life in the stories of Carnegie, Frick, Westinghouse and other robber barons of the era."
On November 17, Schuler was the featured guest during an "Evening with the Author" web event for the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA), to an audience of nearly 70 guests. During what was largely a free-flowing Q-and-A session, Schuler talked about his intentions for the book and gave some highlights of its 10 years in the making. "From the start, I saw the book as an American history book rather than a parochial keepsake," Schuler explains. "Pittsburgh's history is really co-extensive with the history of American democracy, and the story of Pittsburgh's lawyers shows the influence of the region on American institutions -- from defining the limits of dissent within the new Republic, to the evolution of the American corporation, to the struggles between capital and labor, to the era of reform ushered in by the trust-buster, President Theodore Roosevelt, to the decline and rebirth of a great American city." Mixed in with these larger themes, Schuler explains, are the stories of women and African Americans breaking barriers as they entered the legal profession, municipal corruption and political witch hunts, and the changing nature of the practice of law. Schuler conducted over 100 interviews and gathered his research from archival sources throughout the Northeast; but some of his most important discoveries were made through what he refers to as "reverse genealogy" -- tracing the descendants of some of his book's characters and uncovering lost caches of material and memories that resided in private, family hands. "Finding some of these descendants actually led to rebuilding portions of the historical record that were otherwise lost. It was a very gratifying experience."
Schuler is scheduled to present STEEL BAR programs to the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel in December on lawyers and leadership, with co-presenter Stephen Yslas, the former corporate vice president and general counsel of Northrop Grumman and former police commissioner of Los Angeles; to the Federal Courts section of the ACBA, on the story behind the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel, in January 2021; and for the Homer S. Brown Division of the ACBA, in February 2021, on the story of diversity in the Pittsburgh bar.
In the first, on November 11, 2020 for the Sewickley Valley Historical Society, Ron Schuler spoke to an audience of approximately 80 viewers on the Gilded Age relationship between two larger-than-life tycoons, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. In "The Gilded Age in Four Acts," Schuler discussed four important events in American history -- the Johnstown Flood of 1889, the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, the settlement of the World's Greatest Lawsuit between Carnegie and Frick in 1901, and the creation of America's first billion-dollar corporation, U.S. Steel, in 1901. "Each of them were seminal events in the growing power of the American corporation in the hands of these 19th century tycoons. They each occurred in and around Pittsburgh, and were each influenced by the interactions between Carnegie and Frick and their very talented lawyers." Carnegie and Frick's lawyers of choice, James Hay Reed and Philander Knox, were the founders of the present day global law firm of Reed Smith; Reed briefly served as a federal judge, while Philander Knox served three presidents as Attorney General and Secretary of State, and as a U.S. Senator. "The influence of Pittsburgh lawyers on American political and commercial institutions around the turn of the 20th century really begins to come to life in the stories of Carnegie, Frick, Westinghouse and other robber barons of the era."
On November 17, Schuler was the featured guest during an "Evening with the Author" web event for the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA), to an audience of nearly 70 guests. During what was largely a free-flowing Q-and-A session, Schuler talked about his intentions for the book and gave some highlights of its 10 years in the making. "From the start, I saw the book as an American history book rather than a parochial keepsake," Schuler explains. "Pittsburgh's history is really co-extensive with the history of American democracy, and the story of Pittsburgh's lawyers shows the influence of the region on American institutions -- from defining the limits of dissent within the new Republic, to the evolution of the American corporation, to the struggles between capital and labor, to the era of reform ushered in by the trust-buster, President Theodore Roosevelt, to the decline and rebirth of a great American city." Mixed in with these larger themes, Schuler explains, are the stories of women and African Americans breaking barriers as they entered the legal profession, municipal corruption and political witch hunts, and the changing nature of the practice of law. Schuler conducted over 100 interviews and gathered his research from archival sources throughout the Northeast; but some of his most important discoveries were made through what he refers to as "reverse genealogy" -- tracing the descendants of some of his book's characters and uncovering lost caches of material and memories that resided in private, family hands. "Finding some of these descendants actually led to rebuilding portions of the historical record that were otherwise lost. It was a very gratifying experience."
Schuler is scheduled to present STEEL BAR programs to the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel in December on lawyers and leadership, with co-presenter Stephen Yslas, the former corporate vice president and general counsel of Northrop Grumman and former police commissioner of Los Angeles; to the Federal Courts section of the ACBA, on the story behind the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel, in January 2021; and for the Homer S. Brown Division of the ACBA, in February 2021, on the story of diversity in the Pittsburgh bar.
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