Once in a Great City

July 6, 2015
Using a combination of historical eyewitness reports and sketches of larger-than-life figures, Pulitzer-winning reporter Maraniss (Barack Obama: The Story) draws a sprawling portrait of Detroit at a pivotal moment when it was “dying and thriving at the same time.” Given its current turmoil, it is easy to forget the Detroit that once was. Between the fall of 1962 and the spring of 1964, Detroit was at its peak. It was a front-runner in the bid for the 1968 Summer Olympics; its local civil rights leaders organized the Walk to Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. workshopped his famous “I Have a Dream” speech; Ford Motor Co. released the Mustang; Berry Gordy was honing the soon-to-be famous “Motown sound” on West Grand Boulevard; and Walter Reuther, head of UAW, was guiding labor towards progressive reform. But even in this golden age, all was not well in Detroit. Discriminatory housing practices, intended to prevent minorities from entering the toniest neighborhoods, were exacerbating existing racial tensions, and the city’s organized crime could not be cleaned up despite the police commissioner’s best efforts. But for all his exhaustive research and evocative scene-setting, Maraniss never seems to find the zeitgeist of the historical moment he covers, the essential spirit that lifted up but ultimately ruined the Motor City. Maps & photos. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, ICM/Sagalyn.

July 1, 2015

In his new book, social historian Maraniss (They Marched Into Sunlight) asks: What happened to Detroit? In well-researched material that includes exclusive interviews with notable figures, the author concentrates his analysis on the "golden years" of Detroit in the early 1960s; an era that saw the rise of Motown and the domination of the Ford Motor Company's triumphant Mustang but was also a time of social unrest and racial conflict. He uses elements often associated with Detroit--music, athletics, motors, and race relations--to illustrate that even at the city's highest points, the inability to address the social issues dividing black and white, rich and poor, would ultimately be its undoing. Maraniss draws connections between Detroit's struggles, successes, and doubts to those same issues on the larger, national, scale, keeping the discussion in perspective. In celebration of what Detroit represented, this book is equally a study of what was lost and is written with an attractive wistfulness that pulls the reader in. The narrative's tone of reminiscence makes it entertainingly informative. VERDICT A colorful, detailed history of the rise and ultimate decline of Detroit that will appeal to sociologists, historians, music lovers, and car fans alike. [See Prepub Alert, 3/30/15.]--Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH

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