In the American Midwest of hte 1970s and 1980s, 'factory in ruins' was a stock phrase with all the force and familiarity of 'farm crisis' and 'long cold winter'. At least 2.5 million manufacturing jobs in the industrial heartland of the US were lost in just the period 1979 to 1983. [...] There was a sense, then, that even the rust might disappear before long.