Part 2, Chapters 1-5 Summary

Part 2 is the story of Mike Dobrejcak. Mike is twenty-five years old in 1900 and has been in America for eleven years. He has worked in the steel mill for ten of those years and is still earning fourteen cents an hour. Mike has gone to school to learn to read and write English and learned some American history in the process. The population of Braddock has doubled since Mike arrived. Immigrants other than Slavs have arrived to work in the mills. There is still a housing shortage and rents are high. There is racial tension between the different ethnic groups in Braddock. The first generation of immigrants, like Kracha, stayed out of politics. They kept their mouths shut. They were just glad to have jobs.

Mike's younger brother, Joe, comes to Braddock in 1901. He leaves his wife in Hungary...