Hawthorne Works (Images of America) Paperback – Illustrated, February 10, 2014

Well written, great info, wonderful historic photos

I started working at Hawthorne Works after college in the early 1970's as a management trainee. Not a day passed when the history of the plant, the past decisions, the innovation of those who came before did not exist in your conscience and impact your decision making. This book provides a sense of what was and its impact on people and community. Thank you to the authors for their in depth coverage of a historic facility. Thank you for preserving the sense of history. I do miss walking into Gate 1 and gazing at the tower as I came to work from the Cicero "El" station. I think this book brought back those good feelings. Anyone who worked in American Manufacturing, lived in Cicero or Berwyn or had family members who brought up their children with the proceeds from their hard work at Hawthorne must have this book to pass on to their grandchildren.

This book is chock-full of great photos and information. I bought it for my husband who was an employee of the phone company in Los Angeles and he can't put it down. A must have for the phone enthusiast.

Nice history but would have liked more / better photos those in the book were grainy poor quality

Western was a part of our family life. My dad worked there around the time he married my mom, was laid off during the peak years of the Depression, and finally was rehired when the war in Europe started. During his 40 years with Western Electric, he worked on the switching systems that allowed for automatic phone dialing, and he even worked on a secret project that helped the U.S. win WWII. Schlagheck told the history of Western Electric's Hawthorn plant which was well covered by photos from the building of the first plant structures to the final years of operation. It was fun to see the places my dad worked and understand how the Hawthorn Plant contributed to American manufacturing prowess during the war years. I am glad that the author finally collected this information into one book. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to remember the kind of company that made up a big part of the history of Chicago.

wonderful book. excellent research and photos. sad that so much of that material was not saved in an archive.

I started working for 'The Western' in 1972 when there were still nearly 25k people working at Hawthorne so I've seen a lot of historic photos over the years. This compilation exceeded what I expected and will be on our coffee table here in Colorado for a long, long time. Nicely done.

Reading about where my parents worked, nicely done.