City of Champions: A History of Triumph and Defeat in Detroit
A most interesting and unusual book was published this summer. The title is shown above. The authors are Stefan Szymanski who is a sports economist teaching at the University of Michigan and Silke-Maria Weineck who is a professor of German Language and Comparative Literature.
They have a unique and fascinating way of describing the social history of the city. They focus upon sports in Detroit and link the success and failures of many teams and numerous athletes to a fascinating description of how city changed since 1701 when the French arrived and found the Native Americans were playing what came to be known as lacrosse. There is a great description of the championship 1887 Wolverines team along with descriptions the of the city’s attempts to host the Olympics in 1920 and 1928. The authors may, at heart, be soccer aficionados but every sport played in Detroit is well described and link to how the city changes. It is amazing to read a book that presents well organized information about such a diversity of Detroit figures including Charles Coughlin, Hank Greenberg, Gordie Howe, Kwame Kilpatrick, Bobby Layne, Joe Louis, Hazen Pingree, Walter Reuther, John Roesink and Mies van der Rhoe. The epilogue is exceptionally fascinating since it describe how Detroit and Windsor might be chosen for the 2032 Olympics using a dozen or so venues that now exist.
Every year there are a dozen or more books published about Detroit. This will be, I think, the most imaginative and interesting one published this year. [[Stefan Szymanski and Silke-Marie Weineck; City of Champions: A History of Triumph and Defeat in Detroit; New York: The New Press, 2020.
