Detroit, do declinio ao renascimento: Economic and Business History Society 2019

Call for Papers
44th Annual EBHS Conference

Detroit, Michigan

June 5 to 8, 2019

The 44th Economic and Business History Society (EBHS) Annual Conference will be held in Detroit, Michigan. Our general theme is Manufacturing and the City. However, individual proposals for presentations on any aspect of economic, social or business history are welcome, as are proposals for whole panels. We welcome submissions from graduate students and non-academic affiliates.

Detroit Michigan is uniquely positioned for attendees to experience both past and present relationships between the world of commerce and the urban experience. The “Motor City” has been the long-time center of the American auto industry and earned the title of the “Arsenal of Democracy” for its industrial output in World War II. In more recent times, the City filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history and is presently emerging as a revitalized city, featuring a revitalized downtown populated by some of the most innovative companies in the United States today.

The Conference will be headquartered at the historic Fort Shelby Hotel, first opened in 1917. In 2007, this famous Albert Kahn designed facility benefitted from an $80 million restoration and modernization.

Our conference social program and keynote events will focus on Detroit’s manufacturing heritage as well as its urban rebirth process. The conference optional tour will be to The Henry Ford, which feature the Henry Ford Museum and outdoor Greenfield Village. The Henry Ford’s collections include Thomas Edison’s Menlo Lab complex, Abraham Lincoln’s assassination chair, John F. Kennedy’s assassination limousine, the Rosa Parks bus, and much more.

Detroit also features a rich variety of sports, music and restaurants that will interest conference participants.

Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 500 words and contact details. The deadline for submission of proposals is February 15, 2019. The Program Chair will send a notification of acceptance of abstracts by March 1, 2019. Online registration will be available soon after at www.ebhsoc.org. Proposals may be submitted through the EBHS website at www.ebhsoc.org, by email to ebhs2019@ebhsoc.org.

If you have further questions about the meeting or organization please contact Program Chair Jeremy Land Land25.Jeremy@gmail.com or EBHS 2019 President John Moore jmoore1@walshcollege.edu.

EBHS also operates a peer-reviewed open access journal, Essays in Economic and Business History, edited by Mark Billings (University of Exeter Business School) and Dan Giedeman (Grand Valley State University). Conference papers and non-conference papers alike may be submitted to Essays for consideration. We invite you to visit our website, www.ebhsoc.org, to see our editorial board and policies, as well as back issues.

We look forward to welcoming you to Detroit and the Motor City!

________________________________________________________________________
44th Annual Economic and Business History Society Conference 
Fort Shelby Hotel, Detroit, Michigan
June 5  to June 8, 2019

http://www.ebhsoc.org/conference/index.php/ebhsoc/Detroit2019

Across the Empire, 2014 (22): Detroit, entre a tecnologia e a arte

Across the Empire, 2014 (22): Detroit, entre a tecnologia e a arte

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Sexta-feira 19/09: com a Escócia salva – mas tem gente que não concorda – o dia foi dedicado às duas realizações mais características e mais caras do ser humano: a tecnologia e a arte (que de certa forma se confundem, pois uma se inspira na outra, para o maior bem da humanidade).

Pela manhã, bem cedo, fui a Dearborn, visitar o Henry Ford Museum, um enorme complexo contendo não apenas as maiores invenções tecnológicas desde a revolução industrial, mas também cenas da vida americana desde a colônia até os dia de hoje. Existe uma certa linearidade cronológica nos diversos blocos de um imenso salão de exposições, dividido em várias alas, mas o mais importante é a coleção impressionante de máquinas e mecanismos de transporte e de produção, de todos os tipos, que Henry Ford acumulou ao longo de sua vida, a começar pela agricultura, atividade à qual ele sempre deu especial atenção. O complexo integra ainda um “Greenfield Village”, com montagens reais da vida camponesa, mas que preferi não visitar, tanto por falta de tempo, como porque se tratava de algo mais didático, dedicado a crianças e jovens. Concentrei-me nas realizações tecnológicas, inclusive no famoso modelo T, o carro que revolucionou o mundo da produção, e não apenas automobilística, criando o que ficou conhecido como a linha de montagem (que na verdade é uma derivação prática da teoria econômica de Adam Smith, sobre s divisão social do trabalho). Entre 1908 e 1928, esse modelo básico, podendo ser montado por qualquer trabalhador sumariamente instruído, mas que era submetido a uma assemblagem precisa, concebida por engenheiros, foi o exemplo da moderna organização do trabalho: ao reduzir o preço de um automóvel em mais de 60% da média do mercado do seu tempo, o Ford T é uma brilhante demonstração de como o capitalismo inteligente pode transformar, por meio de uma tecnologia engenhosa um produto de luxo em mercadoria de consumo de massa.

Existem dezenas de modelos de praticamente todos os tipos de automóveis, inclusive europeus e alguns japoneses, mas predominantemente americanos, como seria de se esperar; senti falta do meu primeiro carro, que usei na Europa, enquanto morava na Bélgica: um Citroen Deux Chevaux – ou seja, dois cavalos de (im)potência – que me levou a vários pontos do continente, mas sempre em velocidade reduzida: quando tentei ultrapassar os 120km/h, o motor fundiu, e demorou certo tempo para juntar dinheiro para trocar o motor... Gostei também de um dos primeiros modelos de ônibus escolares, mais uma demonstração de que o transporte de estudantes sempre foi um componente essencial do processo educacional neste país.

No meio de toda aquela tecnologia, algumas lições de história, inclusive constitucional, libertação dos escravos, direitos da mulher, etc. Os visitantes aprendem que o texto constitucional desenhado em Filadélfia – mas com raízes anteriores – é o mais velho documento desse gênero no mundo; logo após, foram definidos os primeiros atos adicionais, chamados de Bill of Rights, que são especificamente dedicados a salvaguardar os direitos e as liberdades dos cidadãos americanos CONTRA o governo. A base de tudo isso é a autonomia do indivíduo, a liberdade, e a independência da nação, como explicava Thomas Paine (aliás presente num vídeo bastante esclarecedor sobre a revolução contra o reio Jorge), em seu famoso panfleto, Common Sense, mostrado numa primeira edição ali preservada.

Um outro painel explicava exatamente contra quais exações britânicas os americanos se revoltaram, nos famosos episódios que foram aumentando as reclamações dos colonos no sentido de se sentirem “taxados sem representação”.

Passamos, depois, toda a tarde no Detroit Institute of Arts, uma instituição modelo no gênero, e altamente visitável: mas, como a fome apertava, Carmen Lícia eu visitamos primeiro o restaurante do museu: eu comecei pela soupe du jour, um seafood and corn chowder, e depois dividimos um plateau de fromages, como pode ser visto nesta foto que Carmen Lícia fez, que fizemos acompanhar de duas taças de Cabernet Sauvignon e eu uma pequena garrafa de Perrier, terminando por um expresso double.

Depois do estômago, a arte, duplamente, pois que, no meio da visita, em plena sala dedicada aos murais de Diego Rivera, pudemos assistir ao ensaio da banda que tocaria logo mais no começo da noite, do qual fiz um pequeno filme; creio que não conseguirei exibir aqui, pois são muitos MB, mais exatamente 134, e a conexão do hotel é muito ruim; vou tentar colocar no iCloud, para dar apenas o link, e registro uma foto aqui do evento; destaques, para o nome da chinesa, que se chama Grace Kelly (mais alguma coisa chinesa) e para as horríveis bermudas vermelhas do trompetista, aliás, um desses calções de jogadores de basquete. Não sei se ele pretendia se apresentar desse jeito, em todo caso, não esperamos para ver.

Continuamos visitando o museu, com algumas peças conhecidas de livros de arte, e outras dentro do padrão esperado para instituições desse calibre: os inevitáveis impressionistas franceses, alguns grandes nomes da pintura europeia (Brugel, Cranach, Van Gogh), mas também uma coleção altamente significativa de arte americana, asiática, africana, e o que mais sempre tem nos museus peso-pesados.

Compramos alguns objetos na loja do museu – entre eles um novo colar para Carmen Lícis e um CD de jazz para mim – e depois ainda fomos passear pela cidade, para ver mosaicos e pinturas em estações de bonde elevado, que aqui eles chamam de people mover. 

Amanhã, vamos atravessar esta ponte, apropriadamente chamada Ambassador, em direção a Windsor, por onde entramos no Canadá, em direção a Toronto. Ainda temos algum caminho pela frente, e possivelmente mais dois ou três museus, além de uma bela cidade canadense.

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Detroit, 19 de setembro de 2014

Across the Empire, 2014 (21): Detroit, a Paris (falida) do MidWest?

Across the Empire, 2014 (21): Detroit, a Paris (falida) do MidWest?

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Prosseguindo nosso (longo) caminho de volta, hoje, 18 de setembro, dia do referendo escocês (ouvi pela rádio que o “não estava ganhando por 53%, mas que só na manhã de sexta 19 teríamos os primeiros números oficiais, pois a contagem é manual), Carmen Lícia e eu saímos de Manistique no final da manhã, não sem antes algumas últimas fotos de despedida desse ponto mais extremo na extremidade norte do lago Michigan: um farol e alguns alces muito bem vestidos em frente a restaurantes e hotéis da cidade. Eu, por exemplo, fiz uma foto deste Alce fêmea, ou Madame Alça, em frente do nosso hotel, mas havia outros, alguns bastante engraçados, como um senhor Alce de smoking (tuxedo).

Empreendemos então o largo trajeto em direção ao sul, começando por atravessar a ponte sob a qual se faz a junção do lago Michigan com o lago Huron, e depois descemos pela I-75 até Detroit, na extremidade oriental de Michigan, às portas do Ontário canadense, junto à cidade de Windsor.

Vocês acreditam mesmo que os responsáveis locais pela propaganda da cidade ainda têm a petulância de chamar esta cidade de “Paris do MidWest”? Ou que ela seria a “Meca da gastronomia” da região? Vejam, a propósito, esta foto da capa da revista de turismo local.

Eles deliram, ou acreditam mesmo? Esta cidade está simplesmente falida, e sua dívidas chegam a mais ou menos 18 bilhões de dólares aos seus credores, que são tanto os fornecedores de bens e serviços para a prefeitura, quanto os pensionistas do setor público e de suas agências subordinadas e os muitos provedores dos serviços urbanos e de infraestrutura coletiva. Quando lemos, alguns meses atrás, sobre a bancarrota anunciada da cidade, quando ela foi colocada sob intervenção judicial e entregue a um gestor da massa falida – como tal, encarregado de negociar os débitos, déficits e passivos da cidade – as matérias todas falavam dos edifícios vazios, das casas abandonadas, do lixo acumulado nas ruas e de outras misérias, inclusive com fotos espetaculares; a impressão que se tinha era que isto aqui seria uma Síria do MidWest, ou quase uma cidade fantasma.

Falava-se inclusive na venda em leilão dos quadros mais famosos do Detroit Institute of Arts – como sempre, impressionistas franceses – cuja valor estimado representaria algumas centenas de milhões, um pingo de compensação em face das quase duas dezenas de bilhões de dólares da inadimplência oficial (isto apenas o registro do balanço, mas potencialmente muito mais, como resultado dos negócios fechados). A ex-cidade do automóvel faria figura de destaque nos melhores filmes-catástrofe sobre as distopias da modernidade.

Tanto era assim que, ao viajar a Chicago em maio último, para um congresso da LASA, fizemos questão de voltar por aqui, para verificar o estado “sírio” da cidade, e visitar o museu de arte antes que fechasse. Como sempre, os jornalistas pintam um quadro mais negro do que o verdadeiro, e escolhem as piores fotos para ilustrar o caos urbano. Não vimos nenhuma cena “síria”: muitos prédios com tapume, certo, e algumas casas abandonadas, mas uma cidade normal, inclusive com novas obras públicas e reformas privadas sendo empreendidas, talvez já como resultado na queda nos preços dos imóveis e boas oportunidades de ganhos futuros.

Desta vez viemos para conhecer melhor a cidade, e nos hospedamos por dois dias no Atheneum Suite Hotel, bem no centro da cidade, e ao lado de um cassino grego (por uma vez não é de índio capitalista). O Hotel tem no seu lobby um imenso painel de Lacoonte, imitando grosseiramente uma famosa estátua de Fídias, que vimos em Roma, se bem me lembro, e creio que no museu do Vaticano. Faz parte do kitsch americano. Os gregos, e os African-Americans, dominam no bairro, mas o ambiente está longe de ser distópico.

Programa local? Tem vários, mas o essencial se refere ao já citado Institute of Arts, que pode eventualmente ser usado como colateral na renegociação das dívidas, e o complexo Henry Ford, em Dearborn, algo como 15 milhas a leste, no caminho de Chicago, precisamente. É o que pretendemos fazer nesta sexta-feira.

Depois, é o Canadá, como já anunciado, para visitar o novo museu Aga Khan em Toronto.

         Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Detroit, 18 de setembro de 2014

Detroit: uma cidade destruida pela incompetencia politica e pelacorrupcao dos politicos...

Agora sendo objeto de atenção de banqueiros. O problema não é o dinheiro, mas os que fazem a gestão da cidade.

Preparando-me para visitar a cidade, justamente para ver até onde pode chegar a decadência induzida por incompetentes e corruptos, geralmente os dois combinados.

Paulo Roberto de Almeida 

The Answer to Detroit's Problems: Rich Guys Calling Each Other to Discuss Their 'Neat' Ideas

Jim Epstein|Blog The Neat Reason,May. 21, 2014 3:30 pm

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"When the head of the world's largest bank called the local billionaire bent on Detroit's revival, good things happened," reads the lede to a story in the Detroit Free Press by Business Writer John Gallagher. The "billionaire bent on Detroit's revival" is Dan Gilbert, the co-founder of Quicken Loans, and the "head of the world's largest bank" is Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, who just announced that his bank is making a $100 million "investment" in the Motor City.

"Obviously, Detroit was having issues," Dimon told Gallagher in an "exclusive" interview. "I got together some of our senior people and said, 'What can we do that's really neat, that could be really creative?'"

If only super rich guys would pick up the damn phone more often to talk about their neat ideas, maybe Detroit wouldn't be an urban disaster area currently embroiled in the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

Gallagher explains to his readers that J.P. Morgan decided to spend $100 million in Detroit as a public relations move and to "revitalize one of its major markets." He doesn't mention that in forking over all that money the bank is actually fulfilling its obligations under its $13 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice related to its role in securitizing toxic mortgages. As part of the deal, some of the money goes towards combating urban blight, and other distressed cities have also been vying for a piece.

With the announcement of its gift, the bank released a pamphlettouting its "commitment" to the area that's filled with some of the worst clichés of urban redevelopment. J.P. Morgan will be "strengthening workforce readiness," "tackling blight," and "rolling up [its] sleeves." What could go wrong?

The J.P. Morgan money will undoubtedly do some good, though I'm particularly skeptical of the $12.5 million allocated to job training programs, based on the track record of such initiatives. And the $5.5 million that the bank will contribute to the light rail project on Woodward Avenue would be better spent on improving Detroit's unreliable albeit less glamorous public bus system, which is what residents actually use to get around.

Speaking of "seeding future economic growth" on Woodward Avenue, Nick Gillespie and I looked at the rationale behind that light rail boondogle back in 2010. In his recent Reason TV series, "Anarchy in Detroit" (which he elaborated on with an article in our print mag), Zach Weissmueller looked at how bottom up initiatives, like mower gangs and experiments in alternative living, are actually Detroit's best hope at a comeback.

Detroit arruinada: melhor leiloar todos os seus tesouros artisiticos...

ECONOMY

Costs, Benefits and Masterpieces in Detroit

The New York Times, MARCH 29, 2014

Photo

The Wedding Dance,” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, has long been part of the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. One estimate put the painting’s value at up to $200 million.CreditFabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

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Economic View

By ROBERT H. FRANK

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Most of the paintings on my walls are by artists I know personally. And although some of these works are hauntingly beautiful, they wouldn’t command much on the open market.

But the prices fetched by famous artists have spiked sharply in recent decades. That is not because their paintings have become any better. Rather, it’s that these works have become trophies in bidding wars among the superrich.

That fact has implications for museum policies in general, and in particular for the valuable collection in the Detroit Institute of Arts. That collection includes canvases by van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, Rivera, Gauguin, Degas and many others. The city of Detroit, which owns many of the paintings, filed for bankruptcy last year, citing its inability to service its many billions in debt. The presiding judge authorized the city to explore the possibility of selling assets, including those paintings.

Since then, worried creditors have been eyeing those treasures. Christie’s, the auction house, has estimated that the core of the collection would sell for $454 million to $867 million. But those figures cover only a fraction of the museum’s art; others have put the total value much higher. Foundations and individual donors have already pledged hundreds of millions to keep the collection off the auction block, but whether they will succeed remains uncertain.

With Detroit’s sense of history and civic pride on the line, how much should its boosters be willing to pony up? It’s an emotionally charged question, and few people would want the institute’s art to leave the city. Yet officials cannot responsibly ignore the costs and the benefits of the choices ahead.

One way to think about the decision is to imagine Detroit as a new municipality about to build a museum stocked and operated at taxpayer expense. Which paintings should it display?

Perhaps the most important principle of economics is that an action should be taken only if its benefit, broadly construed, exceeds its cost. This principle counsels that a painting should be displayed if the resulting gains — primarily, the pleasure that museum visitors take in seeing it, in addition to any indirect benefits, like those for civic pride and tourism — add up to more than the corresponding costs.

Some people say that because it’s so hard to put a dollar figure on such benefits, this principle is of little practical use in Detroit. But the benefits must be substantial — how else to explain the extraordinary efforts of private donors to save the collection?

Fortunately, costs are easier to estimate, and those for displaying a painting derive largely from its market value. Consider “The Wedding Dance,” a 16th-century work by the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Detroit museum visitors have enjoyed this painting since 1930. How much would it cost to preserve that privilege for future generations?

A tidy sum, as it turns out. According to Christie’s, this canvas alone could fetch up to $200 million. Once interest rates return to normal levels — say, 6 percent — the forgone interest on that amount would be approximately $12 million a year.

If we assume that the museum would be open 2,000 hours a year, and ignore the cost of gallery space and other indirect expenses, the cost of keeping the painting on display would be more than $6,000 an hour. Assuming that an average of five people would view it per hour, all year long, it would still cost more than $1,200 an hour to provide the experience for each visitor.

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Notwithstanding the crudeness of these approximations, we can say that even a very wealthy taxpayer would be reluctant to pay anything close to $1,200 an hour for the privilege of viewing this painting. And that suggests that most taxpayers think the same money could deliver much greater value if spent in other ways. Of course, the painting might still justify its cost if other indirect benefits were large enough.

Yet the point remains that prices affect the options we face. Relative to famous art, lesser-known works have become much cheaper in recent years, despite no evidence of any decline in their quality. In a rational world, this change would encourage curators to invest more heavily in emerging artists.

Many of these artists produce works that are deeply affecting, yet surprisingly affordable. Talented curators could assemble collections of their art that would delight visitors and draw fulsome praise from critics. And as those works became better known, their value would climb rapidly.

Ownership by public or nonprofit institutions is also not a prerequisite for public exhibition of prized art. The superrich pay so much for these works largely because they are already so famous. Yet being chosen for prominent display in public spaces was how many of these works became famous in the first place. If fewer museums owned them, the rich would have good reason to lend them more often for public display, as indeed many already do, thus preserving and enhancing their value. If sold, many of the institute’s famous works would return as loaners, along with such works from other collections.

If billionaires choose to bid up the prices of trophy art, that’s their privilege. And because most of them will die with large fortunes unspent, they can buy what they want without having to buy less of other things they value. But because money for worthy public purposes is chronically in short supply, city officials and true philanthropists must grapple with agonizing trade-offs.

Yes, communities benefit from famous paintings, but they also benefit from safer roads and better schools.

ROBERT H. FRANK is an economics professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

A version of this article appears in print on March 30, 2014, on page BU7 of the New York edition with the headline: Costs, Benefits and Masterpieces.

Este dia 23 de Outubro na Historia: Pele, Hungria, Libia, e Detroit

A Radio France Info me envia um alerta para informar porque este dia 23 de Outubro merece registro nos anais da História, entre eles o nascimento de Pelé.

Aos três eventos abaixo relacionados, que remetem ao passado, eu acrescento um do presente, que deve deixar uma pesada herança para o futuro dos residentes de Detroit, a capital do automóvel nos EUA, que deve ser oficialmente declarada falida nesta data, por um tribunal de justiça.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
Il était un 23 octobre

Le 23 Octobre 2013 à 06h par Célyne Baÿt-Darcourt

Retour sur 3 grands événements de ce jour: Le 23 octobre 1940 : le plus grand joueur de foot de tous les temps voit le jour au Brésil. Edson Arantès do Nascimento va devenir le Roi Pelé. Il est le seul à avoir décroché 3 fois le titre de champion du monde, le plus jeune aussi (il n'avait que 17 ans lors de la victoire de 1958). Pelé, qui n'a évolué que dans 2 clubs au cours de sa carrière, le Santos FC et le NY Cosmos, a marqué 1.281 buts en 1.363 matches, 92 sélections internationales.

Pelé a pris sa retraite en 77, à 37 ans. Il fut ensuite ministre des Sports dans son pays, ambassadeur de l'ONU pour l'éducation, l'écologie et l'environnement   (il l'est toujours d'ailleurs). Mais le football n'est jamais loin, Pelé est l'ambassadeur du Mondial de l'an prochain qui va se dérouler chez lui, au Brésil.

23 octobre 1956 : le peuple hongrois se soulève contre le gouvernement communiste, et plus généralement contre l'URSS qui occupe le pays depuis la fin de la guerre. Il veut le retour du modéré Imre Nagy au pouvoir, ce que les Soviétiques acceptent. Mais le nouveau président est trop démocrate aux yeux de Moscou et surtout il veut se débarrasser de l'occupant. La répression commence alors. Les insurgés seront écrasés par l'Armée Rouge, Imre Nagy finira pendu. Mais pour la 1ere fois, le monde entier découvrira la brutalité du communisme. Le 23 octobre est aujourd'hui la fête nationale en Hongrie, en souvenir de cette insurrection.

23 octobre 2011 : Benghazy est en liesse, le Conseil national de transition proclame officiellement la libération de la Libye. Kadhafi est mort 3 jours plus tôt, c'est une nouvelle ère qui commence après 42 ans de dictature et 8 mois de guerre civile. Mais la démocratie attendra. 2 ans après, la réconciliation n'est pas à l'ordre du jour, l'insécurité est croissante en Libye. Et on est encore dans une période de transition puisque le pays n'a toujours pas de nouvelle Constitution. Le nouvel homme fort est le président de l'Assemblée nationale, il s'appelle Nouri Bousahmein.

Divida publica: apenas 17 bi; OK, pode-se viver com isso...

... mas não se vc for cidadão de Detroit, caso no qual vc já começa - adulto, velho ou criança -- com uma dívida pessoal de 25 mil dólares.

Aceitável? E se vc não precisa pagar ônibus porque não tem ônibus? Tampouco hospitais, nem policiais nas ruas, nem lâmpadas nos postes, nem postes, por sinal. Aí já começa ficar complicado não é mesmo?

25 anos de social-democracia e de African-americanism resultaram nisso. 

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

J. ERIC WISE The City Journal, August 2013 Is Detroit Dead? Charlie LeDuff says yes. 9 August 2013 Detroit: An American Autopsy, by Charlie LeDuff (Penguin, 304 pp., $27.95) “It’s awful here, there is no other way to say it,” Charlie LeDuff writes in Detroit: An American Autopsy. Now that Detroit has filed for municipal bankruptcy, just how awful is a focus of national attention. But not only is Detroit dead, according to LeDuff’s title; the city was “never really that good.” From the moment when Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac—whom LeDuff derides as a “hustler” and “Detroit’s first dope dealer”—established the settlement to the city’s 1863 race riots to the depredations of the modern-day Motor City, LeDuff’s Detroit has been defined by racism, corruption, and greed. As LeDuff sees it, “Michigan may be geographically one of America’s most northern states, but spiritually, it is one of its most southern”—by which he suggests that it has a long history of racism similar to that of many Southern states. To fit his narrative, LeDuff emphasizes certain episodes in Detroit’s history while wholly overlooking others. For example, discussing the 1943 riots, LeDuff declines to mention that they took place after the federal government designated new public housing, called the Sojourner Truth project, as white public housing (the Federal Housing Administration segregated federal public-housing projects as well as mandating “redlining” lending practices). Mayor Edward Jeffries, a liberal Republican, successfully lobbied Washington to change the project’s racial designation and used a force of 1,100 police officers and 1,600 National Guardsmen to make the project safe for black occupancy. White migrant laborers, many from isolated rural areas, found themselves competing not only for jobs, but also for housing. Resentful of competition, disaffected whites initiated unrest, and the city exploded. After the riots, Detroit’s politics became more racially polarized, and the divisions worsened through the 1950s, with “white flight” and “blockbusting.” Political realignment, centralized urban planning, the destructive effects of Great Society social programs, and increasing radicalism culminated in even more violent riots in 1967. Coleman Young, a champion of urban race politics, became mayor in 1974. Young once said that “Racism is like high blood pressure—the person who has it doesn’t know he has it until he drops over with a God damned stroke.” Young sought to form ever larger political majorities based on race, and he succeeded. During his 20-year tenure, marked by high crime, middle-class residents fled the city, and Detroit’s population declined by as much as 500,000. All of this is one part of the record; LeDuff is not terribly interested in the rest. When Michigan became a United States territory, the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery there. Antebellum Detroit was a Whig city, a stop on the Underground Railroad to Canada, and the home of abolitionist luminary Zachariah Chandler, mayor from 1851 to 1852 and then senator and secretary of the interior. Yes, Detroit erupted in riot in 1863, but LeDuff omits context, such as the draft, Copperhead politics, and concurrent rioting in New York and other northern cities. After the Civil War, Michigan led the country in civil rights. In 1867, the state prohibited segregation in education; in 1869, it banned discrimination in life insurance; in 1883, it removed interracial marriage barriers; in 1885, it prohibited discrimination in public accommodations; and in 1890, more than half a century before Brown v. Board of Education, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine. That’s a lot of history to overlook. LeDuff is dismissive of the city’s civic fathers as well. Of Henry Ford, LeDuff says only that he was “a notorious miser and social ascetic” who despised credit. While not without profound flaws, Ford was also a philanthropist and a pioneer of equal opportunity. Ford’s “welfare industrialism” elevated millions of unskilled laborers from subsistence to abundance, and he didn’t discriminate in hiring and promotion. Herbert Northrup, a Wharton School labor specialist, once observed that at the Ford Motor Company in the twenties and thirties, blacks and whites came “closer to job equality” than at any other large firm in the country. Fully versed in his city’s horrors, LeDuff has little to say about its past glories. By 1950, 1.85 million people called themselves Detroiters, making their city the fifth-largest in America. They sat on the throne of industrial and consumer innovation, and they enjoyed the highest incomes and home-ownership rates in the nation. Today, of course, it’s a different story. Ruinous political leadership, demographic change, and economic dislocation have bled Detroit of much of its vitality. The city today has just under 700,000 residents. But even now, the population of the Detroit metropolitan area (as opposed to the city proper) is holding steady at 95 percent of its 1970 peak. The Detroit region (again, as opposed to the city) has a median household income of $49,160, ranking 17th in the nation. Media attention often focuses on the decline of automotive manufacturing, but despite the disappearance of high-paying, unskilled jobs, skilled positions remain available. The drumbeat about Detroit’s economic decline can thus be misleading; while the city itself is moribund, the region is not. The “awful” conditions stop abruptly at the city’s political boundaries. Detroit’s problems are as much political as financial. LeDuff wonders where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness got lost in Detroit. He is right to wonder, but American Autopsy would be a better book if it did not bury a once-great city. J. Eric Wise is a partner practicing restructuring and finance at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. EMAIL ARTICLE | PRINTER-FRIENDLY | TRANSLATE |SUBSCRIBE TO FEED | SHARE