AHYP History Series: Beyond Steel - Pittsburgh's Reluctant Reinvention

Plan on joining us for our next presentation in our Pittsburgh History Series on Thursday, March 26th. Cocktail hour at 5pm with presentation at 6pm

Presentation Topic:

You are invited to a special event featuring Christopher Briem, author of Beyond Steel: Pittsburgh and the Economic of Transformation.

Beyond Steel collects Briem’s encyclopedic knowledge of the city during and after its steelmaking heyday. Briem tells stories about the boundary between resilience and obstinacy, particularly as manifested in the ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of economic development through smokestack chasing. “Long before the 1980s arrived,” he writes, “future prospects for Greater Pittsburgh had decoupled from the prospects of the American steel industry, a reality that to this day remains difficult to accept for a region so long identified with the seemingly monolithic industry.” At once optimistic and cautious, Beyond Steel should help inform debates about how communities across the Rust Belt navigate issues of dynamism, heritage, and deindustrialization.

About the Presenter:

Christopher Briem is a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR). His undergraduate degree is from Princeton University, and he hold a master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the School of Public and International Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in addition to graduate study in economics at the University of Pittsburgh. For the last 25 years his work at the UCSUR’s Program in Urban and Regional Analysis focuses on economic and demographic forecasting, industry analysis and regional economic competitiveness of the Pittsburgh region. Prior to coming back to Pittsburgh he has worked at Oliver, Wyman and Company in New York, Lehman Brothers and at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Locally he serves on the Regional Policy Advisory Committee of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC). He has recently retired after a 39-year career in the U.S. Navy Reserve and he has a forthcoming book: “Beyond Steel: Pittsburgh Economics of Transformation” which will be released in February 2026.

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