The reasons behind Detroit's persistent racialized poverty after World
War II
Once America's "arsenal of democracy," Detroit is now the symbol of the
American urban crisis. In this reappraisal of America's racial and
economic inequalities, Thomas Sugrue asks why Detroit and other
industrial cities have become the sites of persistent racialized
poverty. He challenges the conventional wisdom that urban decline is the
product of the social programs and racial fissures of the 1960s. Weaving
together the history of workplaces, unions, civil rights groups,
political organizations, and real estate agencies, Sugrue finds the
roots of today's urban poverty in a hidden history of racial violence,
discrimination, and deindustrialization that reshaped the American urban
landscape after World War II.
This Princeton Classics edition includes a new preface by Sugrue,
discussing the lasting impact of the postwar transformation on urban
America and the chronic issues leading to Detroit's bankruptcy.