Untitled Document

Detroit played a larger role than any other American city in shaping the world during the Twentieth Century. The most popular mode of local transportation was perfected in Detroit, revolutionizing where people lived, where they worked and how they took their vacations. Cars and trucks were produced by the millions in Detroit's factories, greatly improving standards of living and the quality of life in every nation. The United States defeated the German and Japanese dictators in World War II because of the ingenuity of the engineers and the strong arms and sturdy backs of several hundred thousand production workers who turned out planes, tanks, jeeps and armaments in the "Arsenal of Democracy". The modern American blue-collar middle class is a Detroit innovation. It emerged after several decades of bitter and frequently violent struggles between capitalists and their workers. Detroit's workers, more so than those in any other city, created the modern industrial unions and successfully demanded the employment benefits most Americans take for granted: paid vacations, family health care, retirement, and annual wage increases.

Detroit is a city of immigrants, as can be seen by the beautiful churches and synagogues each group built shortly after arrival. But the migrants who produced the greatest changes and the most explosive conflict were English-speaking Protestants: the African Americans who came from the South. Indeed, Detroit is the only city where the federal government dispatched troops four times to stop whites and blacks from killing each other—twice in the 19th Century and twice in the 20th.

Despite its long history of great prosperity, technical innovations and inspiring architecture, by the 1970s Detroit became, and arguably remains, the country's most riven location because of the way in which racial, geographic and economic class differences overlap.

This website offers an interpretation of Detroit's history linked to informed speculations about the future of the metropolis. It was developed by Reynolds Farley and Judy Mullin at the University of Michigan for use in the courses Professor Farley taught there.

Detroit

The History and Future of the Motor City

The History and Future of
the Motor City