The Last Days of Detroit
Motor Cars, Motown and the Collapse of an Industrial Giant
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Once America's capitalist dream town, the Silicon Valley of the Jazz Age, Detroit became the country's greatest urban failure, having fallen the longest and the furthest. The city of Henry Ford, modernity, and Motown found itself blighted by riots, arson, unemployment, crime and corruption.
But what happens to a once-great place after it has been used up and discarded? Who stays there to try to make things work again? And what sorts of newcomers are drawn there?
Mark Binelli returned to his native Detroit to explore the city's swathes of abandoned buildings, miles of urban prairie, and streets filled with wild dogs, to tell the story of the new society emerging from the debris. Here he chronicles Detroit with its urban farms and vibrant arts scene, Detroit as a laboratory for the post-industrial, post-recession world, Detroit reimagined as a city for a new century.
Customer Reviews
Loved it
This book puts a story behind the gnarled trees and vacant. It really shows how American has not put behind it the racial lens through which it sees itself. It also shows some structural failures in the American system. How local government should be responsible for fire and police I shall never know.
This book also challenged my own view of 'ruin porn'. We like it because its the future not what it was.
I now have a better understanding why you need a gun. If the police are only going to show up for a murder then what would you do.
Ultimately the auto industry that gave Detroit its wealth sewed the seeds of it own destruction. It was distrupted. Things like the removal of the trolley system wasn't best for Detroit, nor was it best for the companies that sponsored its removal.
A great read!