About the Author

Mark Reutter knew Sparrows Point as a place where the sidewalks were red and the smokestacks big and black when he was a teenager in the 1960s. He became seriously interested in the steel mill when, as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, he investigated a string of deadly accidents. His articles on working conditions at the mill led, for the first time, to the issuance of heavy penalties by the state of Maryland against Bethlehem Steel for flagrant safety and health violations.

His acclaimed history of the mill and its people, Sparrows Point, was published in 1988 by Simon and Schuster. Since then, he has kept watch over the fall and bankruptcy of Bethlehem Steel. His findings of the devastating effects of the decline and cannibalization of Sparrows Point are published in the new edition.

Mark Reutter was an investigative reporter for The Sun. He has since written for various publications, including The Wilson Quarterly and Barron’s. He is the former editor of Railroad History, the leading journal of railway and locomotive history. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Columbia School of Journalism.

Headshot of Mark Reutter

Photo by Jeannine Bestoso
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