A grandson of Mexican immigrants, Ron Schuler draws deeply upon his family background in his first novel to tell a fictionalized tale of two families who arrive in East Los Angeles in 1919: the Martín family, fleeing the Revolution in Zacatecas, Mexico through Arizona copper mines and ranchos southeast of L.A.; and the Baumiller family, after a wildcat strike goes awry in Kansas City, Kansas, starting a new life in the American City of Last Resort. A descendant of both families-half-Mexica...

Within a "Nation of Laws," come to the birthplace of America's industrial might, and see a Nation, testing and being tested by its Laws--in city streets, in factories and boardrooms, and occasionally even in courtrooms."Ron Schuler's THE STEEL BAR is a magnificent tour-de-force: It weaves together history, law and powerful story-telling to produce a dramatic, readable account of the people and unexpected forces that shaped our nation's legal system...