Detroit by Scott Martelle
When we think of Detroit, we think first of the auto industry and its slow, painful decline, then maybe the sounds of Motown, or the long line of professional sports successes. But economies are made up of people, and the effect of the economic downfall of Detroit is one of the most compelling stories in America. Detroit: A Biography by journalist and author Scott Martelle is about a city that rose because of the most American of traits--innovation, entrepreneurship, and an inspiring perseverance. It's about the object lessons learned from the city's collapse, and most prosaically, it's about what happens when a nation turns its back on its own citizens. The story of Detroit encompasses compelling human dimensions, from the hope it once posed for blacks fleeing slavery in the early 1800s and then rural Southern poverty in the 1920s, to the American Dream it represented for waves of European immigrants eager to work in factories bearing the names Ford, Chrysler, and Chevrolet. Martelle clearly encapsulates an entire city, past and present, through the lives of generations of individual citizens. The tragic story truly is a biography, for the city is nothing without its people.
"Scott Martelle has the rare ability to bring alive a patch of history from several hundred years ago as skillfully as he does a present-day Detroiter in his living roomThis is an extraordinary riches-to-rags story that raises big questions for national policy." --Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 "The world can learn much from this bittersweet history of urban grit and strength that has now become a 21st-century symbol for industry, loss, and renewal." --M. L. Liebler, award-winning Detroit poet and editor of Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams "Detroit has played a crucial role in American urban, industrial, and ethnic history, today it is central to any discussion of the future of the nation's cities. Scott Martelle has done a wonderful job of capturing the essence of Detroit from its early history on the Western Frontier to "Motor City" to today's urban crisis." --Dominic A. Pacyga, author of Chicago : A Biography "[Detroit] offers an informative albeit depressing glimpse of the workings of a once-great city that is now a shell of its former self."--Publishers Weekly "[Martelle's] unsentimental assessment is rich with cold, hard facts about those responsible for what Detroit became and what it is today." --Booklist "A valuable biography sure to appeal to readers seeking to come to grips with important problems facing not just a city, but a country." -- Kirkus "While the book focuses on Detroit, readers everywhere will find his analysis useful in understanding what many cities are experiencing." -- Solidarity "[ Detroit ] offers an engaging, provocative introduction." -- Los Angeles Times
Scott Martelle, is a Los Angeles Times staff writer, and a veteran of the 1995 Detroit Newspaper Strike. A native of Maine who grew up in rural western New York, he lives with his wife and their two sons in Irvine, California. Visit Scott's website at www.scottmartelle.com
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781569765265 |
| ISBN 10 | 156976526X |
| Title | Detroit |
| Author | Scott Martelle |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Chicago Review Press |
| Year published | 2012-04-01 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |