December 6, 2025 at 7:00pm
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925 United States
MORE INFO: https://www.bookpassage.com/event/glenn-kurtz-men-work-empire-state-building-and-untold-story-craftsmen-who-built-it-corte
Join us at Book Passage for an author event in celebration of Glenn Kurtz's new book, Men at Work: The Empire State Building and the Untold Story of the Craftsmen who Built It!
ABOUT THIS EVENT
This event will be hosted by Book Passage at our Corte Madera store.
Free Admission / Open Seating
Following the presentation, there will be a signing line or a meet-and-greet.
If you are unable to attend the event, you can still get your copy by clicking the "BUY THE BOOK" button above. If you would like a signed or personalized book, please note that in the order comment field.
For any questions regarding our events, please contact us at books@bookpassage.com.
The author of Three Minutes in Poland and Practicing uncovers the identities of the Empire State Building construction workers, made famous by Lewis W. Hine’s legendary portraits.
This little-known chapter of American labor history captures forgotten stories and features more than 75 photos and other illustrations — some by Hine that have never been seen before — of working-class, immigrant, and indigenous lives who built the architectural icon.
Who built the Empire State Building? Astonishingly, no list of workmen on this historic landmark was ever compiled. While the names of the owners, architects, and contractors are well known, and Lewis Hine left us indelible images of the workers, their identities—the last generation of workmen still practicing these time-honored trades- have not been identified until author Glenn Kurtz unearthed their individual stories for this book.
Drawing on eclectic sources—census, immigration, and union records; contemporary journalism; the personal recollections of their descendants—Kurtz assembles biographies of these workers, providing not only a portrait of the building’s labor force, and a revolutionary re-interpretation of Hine’s world-famous photographs, but also a fundamental reimagining of what made the Empire State Building a fitting symbol for the nation, built as it was at the very height of the Great Depression.
For ninety years, photographer Lewis W. Hine’s iconic portraits and photographs have served as potent symbols of America in the early 1930s. Yet as famous as Hine’s images are, they have never been seen in their proper historical context. By identifying the individuals that built the early skyscraper, Men at Work transforms Hine’s evocative portraits from abstract symbols of an era into documentary evidence of specific, working-class, immigrant and indigenous American lives.
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"The Empire State Building is one of the most iconic buildings ever built. Yet, many aspects of its construction have remained shrouded in myth and mystery. Glenn Kurtz brings to life, for the first time, the personal stories of the workers who erected the Empire State Building. In this important work, Kurtz gives us a view behind the curtain wall, documenting the lives and achievements of the unsung craftsmen who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to build the world’s tallest building. Men at Work is a riveting achievement!” – Jason M. Barr, author of Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World's Tallest Skyscrapers
“Working with a minimum of historical data, Kurtz has broken through the urban mythologies and written an insightful social history, not about the capitalist owners, investors, architects or contractors, but about the every day mortals––ironworkers, carpenters, crane operators and other unsung heroes––who actually built the Empire State Building during the height of the Great Depression… a revelatory contribution to the legacy of New York’s built environment.” – Alastair J. Gordon, cultural historian and author of Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Revolutionary Structure
“Capitalists build nothing. Workers build everything. Glenn Kurtz recovers the stories of the brave men who constructed the Empire State Building masterfully using Lewis Hine's famous photographs of them. A wonderful book for anyone who cares about the stories of real workers.” – Erik Loomis, author of A History of America in Ten Strikes
GLENN KURTZ is the author of Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014), which was named a “Best Book of 2014” by the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, and National Public Radio. A documentary film, Three Minutes—A Lengthening, based on the book, was directed by Bianca Stigter, co-produced by Academy Award-winner Steve McQueen, and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. After premiering at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, the film was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and received the inaugural Yad Vashem Award for Outstanding Holocaust Documentary. Glenn’s first book, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music (Knopf, 2007), garnered enthusiastic reviews from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. The recipient of a 2016-2017 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Glenn is a graduate of Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music and holds a PhD from Stanford University.
Glenn Kurtz - photo credit Beowulf Sheehan
Location:
Book Passage Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925