Detroit

When we think of Detroit we think of the auto industry, but economies are made up of people, and Detroit’s economic downfall is one of the most compelling stories in America. Detroit: A Biography is about a city that rose because of the most American of traits—innovation, entrepreneurship, and an inspiring perseverance—the object lessons learned from the city’s collapse, and what happens when a nation turns its back on its 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. Martelle clearly encapsulates an entire city, past and present, through the lives of generations of individuals. The tragic story truly is a biography, for a city is nothing without its people.