Curbed Detroit's 40 Essential Books About Detroit

[Lowell]

Since we have a little more time to read, how about this nice collection by Curbed Detroit. I copied their list below, but for details and descriptions of each book visit Curbed Detroit's 40 ESSENTIAL BOOKS ABOUT DETROIT page.

HISTORY

• The Dawn of Detroit by Tiya Miles
• Detroit: I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin
• Terror in the City of Champions by Tom Stanton
• The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow
• This Is Detroit by Arthur M. Woodford
• Freer: A Legacy of Art by Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill

FOR DETROIT NEWBIES

• The Origins of the Urban Crisis by Thomas J. Sugrue
• How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass by Aaron Foley
• [[Further reading: The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook by Aaron Foley)
• Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis by Mark Binelli
• Expensive People by Joyce Carol Oates
• Detroit: A Biography by Scott Martelle

FOR ARCHITECTURE BUFFS

• Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit by Michael H. Hodges
• [[Further reading: The Legacy of Albert Kahn by W. Hawkins Ferry)
• Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture by Michael G. Smith
• The Buildings of Detroit: A History by W. Hawkins Ferry
• Where Today Meets Tomorrow by Susan Skarsgard
• Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit by Dan Austin
• [[Further reading: Lost Detroit by Dan Austin)

FOR URBANISTS

• Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies edited by Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar, Natasha Chandani
• The Next American Revolution by Grace Lee Boggs
• [[Further reading: Pages from a Black Radical’s Notebook by James Boggs)
• Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back by Nathan Bomey
• Mapping Detroit: Land, Community, and Shaping a City edited by June Manning Thomas and Henco Bekkering
• Detroit: The Dream Is Now by Michel Arnaud
• From Curbed’s list of the 101 essential books about cities
• Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City by Heather Ann Thompson

FOR YOUR BOOK CLUB

• City Primeval by Elmore Leonard
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Wrestling with the Muse by Melba Joyce Boyd
• A Detroit Anthology edited by Anna Clark
• Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
• Dopefiend by Donald Goines
• The Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle

FOR NOSTALGISTS

• Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Mayor Coleman Young by Coleman A. Young
• The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A. Young edited by Bill McGraw)
• Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit
• Hidden History of Detroit by Amy Elliott Bragg
• Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination by Herb Boyd
• Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line by Ben Hamper
• Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story by David Maraniss

[Lowell]

What would you add?

For me its two of my favs:
Working Detroit by Steve Babson, et. al. and
Detroit Divided [[Multi City Study of Urban Inequality) by Ren Farley, et. al.

[Sandhouse]

They've already got Rivethead, Middlesex, and Once in a Great City, so there's not much to add.

A good companion to Once in a Great City is the recent book by the woman whose mother was a numbers runner in the 1960s, but my memory won't yield the name. But I remember its insights into the black middle class.

I might add Brock Yates' The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry, which has a lot of sociological comment on the city and its suburbs.

[rickbak]

For those looking to satisfy their baseball cravings, the hands-down winner is Lawrence Ritter's classic oral-history collection, The Glory of Their Times. A couple dozen first-person reminiscences of baseball circa 1890s-1940s, with the emphasis being the 1905-1925 era. Lots of great stories. Three ex-Tigers are in it: Davy Jones, Goose Goslin, and Wahoo Sam Crawford. The book was originally published in 1966. Get the expanded 1984 edition, which has a new chapter on Hank Greenberg.

Also: John C. Lodge's I Remember Detroit [[1949) is an interesting read for those who like 19th-Century Detroit. Lodge, who was a newspaperman and mayor [[and also Charles Lindbergh's uncle) rubbed shoulders with all sorts of people whose names adorn street signs. I always found it funny that Lodge has his own name attached to a freeway even though he stubbornly refused to ever learn how to drive a car. A Luddite after my own heart!

[Lowell]

Lodge never learned to drive? What a great piece of Detroit trivia.

[rickbak]

Lodge never learned to drive? What a great piece of Detroit trivia.

I've always found it fascinating that the Spirit of St. Louis could have easily been the Spirit of Detroit, if only ol' Uncle John had supported young Charles Lindbergh's attempt to fly the Atlantic. Instead Lindy found folks in St. Looie to bankroll his foolish venture. Apparently Lodge didn't trust any new-fangled modes of transportation [[planes, cars, etc.).

An associated piece of trivia [[though I'm sure some on this board know this): When Lindbergh flew from NY to Paris in 1927, his mother, Evangeline Land Lindbergh, was teaching at Cass Tech. Believe she taught science and was there for many years. She died in the '50s and is buried somewhere in Oakland County [[name of the cemetery escapes me just now).

[Gistok]

Very interesting!!

Just checked... Charles Lindbergh himself is buried on Maui....

https://www.tourmaui.com/charles-lin...rave-palapala/

[night-timer]

There was a book about the 1970s Detroit killer-for-hire Chester Wheeler Campbell. Interesting guy.

[Justin SOD]

In addition to a few already mentioned:

"313: Life in the Motor City" by Jeff Carlisle which tells some fascinating [[and sometimes quite humorous) short stories about everyday Detroit residents.

Also "Canvas Detroit" by Julie Pincus and Nichole Christian which is a collection of essays and photos documenting various artists [[many of them local) and their artwork in Detroit.

[Kathleen]

...A good companion to Once in a Great City is the recent book by the woman whose mother was a numbers runner in the 1960s, but my memory won't yield the name. But I remember its insights into the black middle class.

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers.

https://www.amazon.com/World-Accordi.../dp/0316558737

Here's the NPR piece: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/26/68881...ers-racket-mom

[Lowell]

Spotted this in today's Free Press. I'm not familiar with his work but it appears quite impressive.
https://freep-mi.newsmemory.com?publ...30047d_1343603

He was assistant bureau chief of Business Week in Detroit and contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers.

His numerous books include the topics of Ford Motor Company's fleet of cargo ships, Detroit's Arsenal of Democracy, Willow Run, St. Clair River, and photographic histories of General Motors, two books on Chevrolet, one on Mustang and books on Ford and Chrysler, all for Arcadia Publishing. His last book was a collection of his mother's letters as a World War I nurse cal

“Forsaken Angels: In Their Own Words.”
Davis spent 27 years as an executive in public relations and marketing for Ford and helped arrange the acquisition of presidential limousines to the Henry Ford

For the Detroit Public Library, he initiated the Collectible Car of the Future, an annual award for the best designed new car with lasting appeal

[Kathleen]

Heard Mike Davis speak a few times as his Arcadia series of books on the various auto-related topics were released. Thanks to him for documenting these histories in pictures and sharing his knowledge with car lovers and Detroit history lovers. RIP.

[Henry Whalley]

What would you add?

For me its two of my favs:
Working Detroit by Steve Babson, et. al. and
Detroit Divided [[Multi City Study of Urban Inequality) by Ren Farley, et. al.

I learned a great deal from this one:
Violence in the Model City: The Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967… by Sidney Fine

[Kathleen]

Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit, by Tom Stanton
Fascinating look at 1930s secret societies and our champion Detroit Tigers and more! https://www.tomstanton.com/books

The Detroitist: An Anthology about Detroit, by Marsha Music [[our very own!) https://marshamusic.wordpress.com/

Just started reading Black Bottom Saints, by Alice Randall
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/90398...troits-history

[Henry Whalley]

Heard Mike Davis speak a few times as his Arcadia series of books on the various auto-related topics were released. Thanks to him for documenting these histories in pictures and sharing his knowledge with car lovers and Detroit history lovers. RIP.

Often used to run into Mike in Berkley at The Lunch Cafe [[TLC) after having my ears lowered at The Chop Shop whereupon I'd join him for lunch. He was a great raconteur and splendid company!

[Henry Whalley]

[QUOTE=Lowell;589940]What would you add?

Three more are:

1. The City of Detroit Michigan 1701-1922 by Clarence Monroe Burton

2. The Narrative of Mr. John Dodge during his Captivity at Detroit by John Dodge
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33344

1. The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39253

Especially interesting was Clarence Burton’s description of driving an automobile on Grand Blvd. when it was a new road. He drove the entire route without encountering another vehicle.

[p69rrh51]

[QUOTE=Henry Whalley;600098]

What would you add?

Three more are:

1. The City of Detroit Michigan 1701-1922 by Clarence Monroe Burton

2. The Narrative of Mr. John Dodge during his Captivity at Detroit by John Dodge
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33344

1. The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39253

Especially interesting was Clarence Burton’s description of driving an automobile on Grand Blvd. when it was a new road. He drove the entire route without encountering another vehicle.

1. The City of Detroit Michigan 1701-1922 by Clarence Monroe Burton is a five volume set.
2. Silas Farmer's History of Detroit and Michigan.

[Ray1936]

"Good Cops, Bad Verdict" by Larry Nevers. Published by LAN publications. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ps_bad_verdict

[Kathleen]

...
Just started reading Black Bottom Saints, by Alice Randall
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/90398...troits-history

Still reading....very entertaining and thought-provoking!
New novel celebrates now-gone Detroit neighborhood Black Bottom
Alice Randall's new book 'Black Bottom Saints' reimagines the vibrant life of Detroit's demolished African-American neighborhood
https://www.freep.com/in-depth/enter...ok/5747285002/