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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 13 March 2017

Book explores trends through fate of Ohio glass manufacturer

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS in poverty, according to social contract, capitalism Smith appreciated the in-
Associated Press the most recent U.S. Cen- and what we want capital- depth history of Anchor
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — sus data. Per capita and ism to do for us.” Hocking in “Glass House.”
A book that examines the household incomes are be- “Glass House” follows He doesn’t dispute that the
history of a longtime glass low the state level. The city “Dreamland” by Sam Qui- company no longer sup-
manufacturing company school district got a “D’’ for nones, a history of the opi- ports the community the
and the corresponding achievement on the most oid epidemic with chapters way it did before private
changes of an American recent state report card. on Portsmouth and Colum- equity firms got involved.
city is the latest best-seller A few years later, reading bus, and “Hillbilly Elegy” by But Smith disagrees with
to explore economic and about changes at Anchor J.D. Vance, his memoir and the book’s suggestion that
social trends in the coun- Hocking, Alexander real- working class study based the city has fallen on hard
try through the lens of Ohio ized that threads for a book on growing up in Middle- times, though it’s worth
communities. he’d been contemplating town as an Appalachian noting his predecessor
“Glass House: The 1% Econ- on trends in America were transplant. resigned two months af-
omy and the Shattering right in front of him. Alexander’s book has ter being sentenced to
of the All-American Town” “The book is not about ruffled a few feathers in 90 days house arrest after
focuses on Lancaster in Lancaster. It’s really about Lancaster, where leaders pleading guilty to failing to
central Ohio and the glass the United States of Amer- boast of the city’s annual file state tax returns for two
company most residents ica and a hundred other music festival, well-main- years. This book cover image re-
still refer to as Anchor towns,” Alexander said in tained historic homes and “It’s not our whole history leased by St. Martin’s Press
Hocking. an interview. “Lancaster a variety of other employ- and it’s not everything shows “Glass House: The 1%
Economy and the Shattering
Journalist author Brian Alex- is really just an avatar for ers besides the glass indus- happening in Lancaster, of the All-American Town” by
ander, who grew up in the what’s been happening to try. and we have a lot of other Brian Alexander.
city, explores what hap- things like employment, the Lancaster Mayor Dave good assets,” Smith said.q Associated Press
pened after outside firms
took over Anchor Hocking
and chipped away at its
local roots. The company’s
headquarters was closed
in 1987 after Newell Corpo-
ration bought the compa-
ny, and 300 office workers
were fired.
“A core group of Lancast-
er’s leadership class, and
their all-important spouses,
were swept away, ripping
a huge hole in the social
fabric of the town,” Alex-
ander writes.
Alexander, 57, remembers
an idyllic childhood in a
town where kids roamed
freely and safely, jobs were
plentiful and families in-
tact. In the 1940s, Forbes
magazine devoted much
of its 30th anniversary is-
sue to Lancaster, dubbing
it the epitome of the all-
American town.
On a 2008 trip back home
with his mother, who had
since retired to Florida, Al-
exander realized the city
wasn’t the one he’d grown
up in.
Lancaster Glass, where
his father worked, had
just shut down. More and
more people were com-
muting up the road to
Columbus for work. The
opioid epidemic had hit
hard, as elsewhere in the
state. Even the city’s better
neighborhoods seemed to
be fraying at the edges.
About 1 in 5 people in
the city of 39,000 now live