Once In A Great City

Posted on 14 January 2018 by David Maraniss

As David Maraniss captures it with power and affection, Detroit summed up America s path to music and prosperity that was already past history.It s 1963 and Detroit is on top of the world The city s leaders are among the most visionary in America Grandson of the first Ford Henry Ford II influential labor leader Walter Reuther Motown s founder Berry Gordy the Reverend C.L Franklin and his daughter, the amazing Aretha Governor George Romney, Mormon and Civil Rights advocate super car salesman Lee Iacocca Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, a Kennedy acolyte Police Commissioner George Edwards Martin Luther King It was the American auto makers best year the revolution in music and politics was underway Reuther s UAW had helped lift the middle class.The time was full of promise The auto industry was selling cars than ever before and inventing the Mustang Motown was capturing the world with its amazing artists The progressive labor movement was rooted in Detroit with the UAW Martin Luther King delivered his I Have a Dream speech there two months before he made it famous in the Washington march.Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then Before the devastating riot Before the decades of civic corruption and neglect, and white flight Before people trotted out the grab bag of rust belt infirmities from harsh weather to high labor costs and competition from abroad to explain Detroit s collapse. Download Once In A Great City by David Maraniss – kino-fada.fr Book 2 for 2016.What did I know about the city of Detroit before I started reading this Well, I was aware that it went bust a few years ago and as a result had to declare bankruptcy Not a very fun thing for a major U S city to have to do, right Well, in Once in a Great City a Detroit story perennial best selling author David Maraniss new work, Detroit comes off as being a true magnet for the country and a sort of proving ground for new cars...At first, I was pretty interested in this book, but as I kept reading, it really wasn t as much about Detroit as I thought it would be It s like if anyone who lived in Detroit did anything, it was included Why was I reading about the assignation of JFK and Martin Luther King Those did not take place in D...David Maraniss ONCE IN A GREAT CITY A DETROIT STORY is almost a love story or at the very least an ode to a city that has slowly fallen from the heights it had reached in the 1950s Maraniss focuses on the 1962 1964 period when the city was about to confront white flight to suburbia, the loss of manufacturing jobs, and the ever present issue of racism Maraniss who is an excellent writer whose works include sports biographies of Vince Lombardi and Roberto Clemente, the foremost study of Bill C David Maraniss ONCE IN A GREAT CITY A DETROIT STORY is almost a love story or at the very least an ode to a city that has slowly fallen from the heights it had reached in the 1950s Maraniss focuses on the 1962 1964 period when the city was about to confront white flight to suburbia, the loss of manufacturing jobs, and the ever present issue of racism Maraniss who is an excellent writer whose works include sports biographies of Vince Lombardi and Roberto Clemente, the foremost study of Bill Clinton s pre presidential years, a wonderful book on Vietnam and the anti war movement among a number of others Maraniss takes on the city of his birth, an urban colossus held together by the automobile industry and manufacturing after World War II that is in the midst of a severe decline The decaying city is like a boxer who...When I was a little kid, my parents took me to the Detroit Zoo we were living in Toronto at the time , and that s about as close as I ve ever gotten to the place It s a sad story that took a heavy toll on an entire city, dragging down many people and forcing them to face crime and poverty on a startling scale, and Once In A Great City explores in hindsight the warning signs that were beginning to subtly appear way back in...I read the rave reviews about this book, but I found it to be considerably overrated While interesting, it is hardly the sweeping portrait of Detroit in the 1960s that it is represented to be It is actually very narrowly focused on a few areas and a few people, mostly community leaders or celebrities So it presents a few slivers of 1960s Detroit The focus is on Ford Motor Company top executives only , organized labor Walter Reuther , Motown music and civil rights struggles of the era Ther I read the rave reviews about this book, but I found it to be considerably overrated While interesting, it is hardly the sweeping portrait of Detroit in the 1960s that it is represented to be It is actually very narrowly focused on a few areas and a few people, mostly community leaders or celebrities So it presents a few slivers of 1960s Detroit The focus is on Ford Motor Company top executives only , organized labor Walter Reuther , Motown music and civil rights struggles of the era There is a also a very long and not very interesting description of Detroit s effort to land the 1968 Olympic Games What is missing is Detroit itself the neighborhoods, the people, the schools, those who labored day to day, whether on an assembly line or somewhere else When the book works, it is because you understand that, although the city is supposedly riding high, there are problems bubbling beneath the surface that will ultimately result in a massive loss of population, racial unrest and, ultimate...David Maraniss saw a commercial during the Super Bowl that brought a wave of nostalgia It inspired him to write Once In A Great City He focuses on Detroit in 1963, just after the Cuban Missle Crisis, to fall of 1964 It was a time when Detroit was on top of the world with visionary leadership, record breaking profits for the Big Three, and Motown s stars on the rise It was where President John F Kennedy first spoke of ask not , and where Rev Martin Luther King first had a dream, and wher David Maraniss saw a commercial during the Super Bowl that brought a wave of nostalgia It inspired him to write Once In A Great City He focuses on Detroit in 1963, just after the Cuban Missle Crisis, to fall of 1964 It was a time when Detroit was on top of the world with visionary leadership, record breaking profits for the Big Three, and Motown s stars on the rise It was where President John F Kennedy first spoke of ask not , and where Rev Martin Luther King first had a dream, and where President Lyndon B Johnson first spoke about a war on poverty It is also when legislation to open housing for all persons failed, when Africa American landmarks...Detroit is where I was born, where I worked, played and loved Before the freeways that wiped from the map Paradise Valley, Black Bottom and the rich cultural mix of 1950s D you were in Detroit or you were a farmer somewhere out in the rural north, west Maraniss chose 4 elements in a confined timescape Fall of 1962 to Spring 1964 the beginnings of Motown civil rights the Mustang and thus, labor and the Big 3 The people involved were historically mighty Reverend C L Franklin, Martin L Detroit is where I was born, where I worked, played and loved Before the freeways that wiped from the map Paradise Valley, Black Bottom and the rich cultural mix of 1950s D you were in Detroit or you were a farmer somewhere out in the rural north, west Maraniss chose 4 elements in a confined timescape Fall of 1962 to Spring 1964 the beginnings of Motown civil rights the Mustang and thus, labor and the Big 3 The people involved were historically mighty Reverend C L Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Hank the Deuce, Walter Reuther JFK delivered his ask not speech in Detroit before his inauguration, began the Peace Corps with an impromptu speech in Michigan Martin Luther King, Jr., welcomed to Detroit by Police Commissioner Edwards with the line there are no fire hoses or dogs to greet you here, LBJ and Reuther in confab regarding LBJ s Great Society the struggle for leadership of the civil rights movement in the north, the struggle for civil r...If you re A A history buff and a MichiganderB A fan of Motown and that era of music Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, Four Tops, etc C Interested in civil rights historyD Thinking my city could never end up like Detroit then you will enjoy this book Unless you only chose D, then it might freak you out a little bit Maraniss covers the heyday of the Motor City, when automakers were setting records for new car sales, the Mustang was on the way, Barry Gordy Jr was founding Motown and turn If you re A A history buff and a MichiganderB A fan of Motown and that era of music Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, Four Tops, etc C Interested in civil rights historyD Thinking my city could never end up like Detroit then ...This book served as a time portal to mid century Detroit Every time I opened the pages and started reading, I could see the modern marble and glass buildings being constructed alongside the art deco skyscrapers that trademarked generations past I could smell the exhaust polluting the air from heavy Ford muscle cars congesting traffic on the newly built interstate highways bringing the city core to the suburbs I could hear the RB notes and melodies of Motown filling the air in and around This book served as a time portal to mid century Detroit Every time I opened the pages and started reading, I could see...I wish David Maraniss had written a different book than this one, which isn t really a fair criticism, but it s true Once In a Great City is a portrait of Detroit in 1963 and into the beginning of 64 , a time when the city was at its peak, culturally, economically, socially, politically, and it all seemed like there was nowhere to go but up Berry Gordy and Motown were just entering their glory years labor leader Walter Reuther and industrialist Henry Ford II were trusted and frequent adviso I wish David Maraniss had written a different book than this one, which isn t really a fair criticism, but it s true Once In a Great City is a portrait of Detroit in 1963 and into the beginning of 64 , a time when the city was at its peak, culturally, economicall...

English
14 January 2018

David Maraniss