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A review by zeydejd
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue
4.0
It took me a long time to finish this one - in part because it started as a book club read for a book club that later dissolved, and in part because I went thru something of a reading hiatus for a good chunk of 2021.
Though dense, this was illuminating and painted a clear, chronological picture of Detroit's housing/employment crisis and ultimate urban collapse. Sugrue acknowledges the major role that deindustrialization and factory migration played, but challenges the theory that those were the primary driving factors of Detroit's (and other Rust Belt cities') urban decay. Instead he takes us further back to the Great Migration and issues related to housing discrimination, segregation, and redlining that pre-date deindustrialization (not to mention WWII). As Sugrue moves into the post-war era, he sets the stage for why and how the city experienced white flight and bastions of defended neighborhoods, which ultimately further exacerbated the housing and discrimination crises in Detroit.
Though dense, this was illuminating and painted a clear, chronological picture of Detroit's housing/employment crisis and ultimate urban collapse. Sugrue acknowledges the major role that deindustrialization and factory migration played, but challenges the theory that those were the primary driving factors of Detroit's (and other Rust Belt cities') urban decay. Instead he takes us further back to the Great Migration and issues related to housing discrimination, segregation, and redlining that pre-date deindustrialization (not to mention WWII). As Sugrue moves into the post-war era, he sets the stage for why and how the city experienced white flight and bastions of defended neighborhoods, which ultimately further exacerbated the housing and discrimination crises in Detroit.