Boston College English professor Carlo Rotella discusses his book *Good With Their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt*, an exploration of cultural change in the working-class heart of the northeast and midwest. Visiting women boxers in Erie, bluesmen in Chicago, cops and crime writers in New York, and urban revivalists in Brockton, Rotella uncovers "what has been lost and gained in the long, slow aging-out of the industrial city."
Carlo Rotella is a writer, journalist, and scholar. His latest book is What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics. A professor of English, American Studies, and journalism at Boston College, Rotella writes regularly for the NYT Magazine and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Best American Essays.