The Rise and Fall of the Rust Belt: Ep 1: American Titans

America’s Great Lakes, with an abundance of coal, iron ore, and lots of water, fuelled an unparalleled industrial revolution.

The region drew the greatest labour force from the western world to run its factories, and made the fortunes of a mighty few who took astonishing risks and created America’s first corporations.

For almost a century the Mid-Western states of the USA manufactured products for the country and the world, deploying innovative technologies that produced everything from steel and motor vehicles to typewriters and razor blades.

Great cities such as Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo and Milwaukee rode this boom and smaller ones such as Toledo and Akron became specialist providers of sought after goods the world over such as rubber.

With European competitors in ruins due to two devasting world wars, the region reigned supreme for nearly a century until the 1970s when economic crises, competition and further technological innovation changed everything.

The Mid West lost jobs, work, orders and factories. Populations and cities shrunk and it became known as the Rust Belt.

This series charts the rise and fall of this historic region. The Rise and Fall of the Rust Belt is a telling story in an early 21st century world where once again innovation, disruption displacement is a force across the planet.