devastated by the decline of the steel industry, including the Monongahela Valley, Minnesota's Mesabi iron range and Appalachia. The song is set to a sparse melody. Its simple chorus is: Here in Youngstown Here in Youngstown My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down Here darlin' in Youngstown The Jenny mentioned in the chorus is possibly a woman but more importantly is the nickname of the Jeanette Blast Furnace, owned by Youngstown Sheet and Tube, which shut down in 1977. Its rusting hulk still stood along the Mahoning River and was visible for miles, constituting with others like it what one newspaper writer described as "the remains of a lost civilization." Springsteen was inspired to write "Youngstown" and "The New Timer", another Ghost of Tom Joad song, after reading Dale Maharidge's 1985 book Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, illustrated by Michael Williamson. Journey to Nowhere chronicled the story of middle class Americans who lost their jobs and had become hobos riding freight trains like in the Great Depression. The stories of dying steel towns inspired "Youngstown" and the stories of boxcar hobos inspired "New Timer". In an interview with BBC Radio, Springsteen stated that his connection to this song was "probably through my own kids and my own job, in the sense that the thought of being told after 30 years or so, that what you're doing isn't useful anymore, or has no place, or that the world has changed and that's the way it is. And you're 50 and gotta find something else to do. That's almost impossible ... I don't know what I would do in that circumstance." With "Youngstown", he managed to trace the rise of America as an industrial power, and the subsequent breaking of its social contract. This contrast between the mythology of the American Dream and the realities faced by its working-class citizens is among Springsteen's most familiar themes. Activist historian Howard Zinn included the lyrics of the song in his 2004 book, Voices of a People's History of the United States. Reception Writing for The New York Times Magazine, author Nicholas Dawidoff said that "Youngstown" was the best song on the album and was an example of "best of his songs [which] have all the tension and complexity of great short fiction." Not everyone was taken with the song; The Dallas Morning News criticized its "ham-fisted factory/hell metaphor". No singles were