David Maraniss’s impressive story of Detroit captures the vitality of the city in the Sixties. The auto industry was booming. Motown Records pumped out hit after hit. But the city was on the edge of a precipice. By the 1970s, Detroit was reeling from the affects of the riots. White flight, the oil embargo, and the decline of the auto industry brought Detroit to its knees. Maraniss tells the story of the unraveling in scintillating prose that crackles with energy. Yes, this is a sad story, but it’s brilliantly told. Once In a Great City is one of the best books of 2015. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Author’s Note
1. Gone
2. Ask Not
3. The Show
4. West Grand Boulevard
5. Party Bus
6. Glow
7. Motor City Mad Men
8. The Pitch of His Hum
9. An Important Man
10. Home Juice
11. Eight Lanes Down Woodward
12. Detroit Dreamed First
13. Heat Wave
14. The Vast Magnitude
15. Houses Divided
16. The Spirit of Detroit
17. Smoke Rings
18. Fallen
19. Big Old Waterboats
20. Unfinished Business
21. The Magic Skyway
22. Upward to the Great Society
Epilogue: Now and Then
Time Line
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index