The truth about Detroit
585192
If you want to understand why GM, Ford, and Chrysler are doomed and have been doomed for two decades, this is the book.

I've worked both for GM (twice) and in Japan for a Japanese automotive supplier, and I can attest that this book really got it right.

Unfortunately, while everyone in Detroit has read this book, they have never followed any of its advice or conclusions.  All the talk about restructuring the US automobile manufacturers is simply about reducing costs and not about making better products by working cooperatively with employees, suppliers, dealers, and customers. Instead, Detroit continues to beat up suppliers on price and wonders why their quality is poor, push employees on wages and wonders why employees care little if the company is successful, haggle with their dealer network to push unwanted cars onto unreceptive customers.

We can bail out the industry financially, but until they learn to compete with the Japanese, they are doomed to decreasing relevance and increasing losses.

This book isn't exciting to read, but nearly 20 years since its original publication, it remains as relevant as ever.
4660564
An amazing book. It's a cliche, but I couldn't put it down.

In the best tradition of journalists who use fiction techniques to bring their stories alive, Charlie LeDuff makes you feel as if you are right there, on these streets, meeting these people and getting a vivid sense of what they're experiencing. Make no mistake: LeDuff is not interested in covering the positive things that are happening in Detroit right now (and yes, there are many positive developments). That's not his beat. I'm guessing that it doesn't inspire him the way the down-and-outers do. LeDuff introduces you to people you wouldn't want to meet outside of the pages of a book: dangerous criminals, crooked politicians and people so caught in the grip of poverty, violent crime and hopelessness that their pain is hard to think about.

LeDuff is no objective journalist; he inserts himself into his stories, interacting with the people he's supposed to be covering, giving himself a role. There is an ego at work here, but it's what gives his writing such a strong, distinctive voice. He mercilessly turns his attention on his own family's troubles as well, letting us in on broken relationships, substance abusers and a surprise bit of genealogy.

You don't have to be a Detroiter to find this book compelling. It's riveting. It's also a cautionary tale. The circumstances that have brought Detroit to its present condition exist in other cities. The outsourcing of industrial jobs, shifting demographics and government corruption have altered great swaths of the American landscape. Detroit holds an uncomfortable mirror up to America - and Charlie LeDuff, with this book, brings that mirror even closer.
2077374
This is a delightful, well researched, and written book that I will share with all my Detroit pals. It is more than just the Grande, although the Grande alone is a great story. It's about the development of the "home of rock and roll," its heydays, and its ultimate decline and ruin. The 60's may have been the best of times, and the beginnings of the worst for the city, but to be young, political, and energetic in those times meant rocking on at the Walled Lake Casino, the Village, Jack Scotts, and the Grande. The impressive photo collection and related art work give life to the text. I was there for the MC5, who to their credit played Chicago in 68, and the Cream. The story about their connection is worth the price of the book alone. And I lived for years in the Warren Forrest neighborhood, in the Forrest Arms, with so many artists and SDSers (the FBI was all over the place).. It's all in "The Grande Ballroom." Even if you're not of that generation, and not from Detroit, this story is a significant part of the history of rock and roll. Enjoy!
1508753
Looking at this book I must say that San Francisco is on its way to share the same faith as Detroit. Some SF Downtown areas are already "no go" zones, tourists are being shot when they come out of the theatre, "drive-by" shootings in the Haight Asbury and "murder and mayhem" in other former once quiet residential neighborhoods. The city is becoming more and more like Oakland and Berkeley.

The interesting fact is that the killers in many instances purchased their guns and ammunition with money they receive from the city (plus of course free housing, free food, medical services and free drugs). Even dog food and dog walkers are paid by the city - courtesy of PAWS. No one dares to speak up and the city supervisors look the other way. Some neighborhood events are cancelled. For example there were several murders a couple of years in a row on "Castro Street Halloween". The suspects from Hunters Point and/or Oakland were found and arrested but let go free. Following the cities liberal spirits, the killers were found but not tried since the police could not find the murder weapons. In order not to "upset" these nice folks from "Hunters Point" or Oakland, the city decided not to allow any more Halloween parties on Castro Street! The same happened during the "Pink Saturday" festivities two years ago. Again, "murder and mayhem" and the killer walked because the police lost the evidence.

What I fondly remember was the public alarm siren after the sentencing of the "Oscar Mehserle" trial (which had been moved to Los Angels for security reasons). The city-wide public announcement at 11:45 AM on November 05, 2010 reminded me what things might have been during Wold War II. That public address announcement warned San Franciscans to "stay home" and to "leave the place of work because" because of potential riots. As it turned out, there were no riots in San Francisco - but in Oakland - very much like the brutal Watts riots in 1965 and the Rodney King Riots in 1992, both in Los Angeles.

Very much like in Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles (and other similar affected cities in the US) affluent people flee the deteriorating city center and set up home in the suburbs. To quote a line from the fabulous John Waters movie "Hairspray": Motormouth Maybelle: [watching Edna walk in] If we get any more white people in here, this is gonna be a suburb.
3221214
Couldn't put it down. Great job setting the tone. What a  glimpse into the history of Detroit and the era.
4691612
This was a classic that I could not wait to open and read every chance I had.  Having grown up in the Detroit area this filled in the details gained from Chafatess careful research, interwoven with his own personal story.  If you want an autopsy on one of the worlds formally great cities, this should be a must read.
2802110
A brilliantly written book by a man, from a woman's perspective. Interestingly enough, Detroit has had a few mayors like that. Great read cover to cover!
2317560
i'm gonna make this short and to the point david did an excellent job on this historical book...actually he could have wrote several volumes. afterall detroit is rock n roll...... i don't care where they put the rock hall of fame (really i was pissed off) but detroit still remains the capital !! if you want to hear and read the basic's of real rock ,buy this book and better yet buy one for every good friend you have, they will love it !!! and to top it off leni sinclair took the back photo and she told me she chose it because of the tee shirt i was wearing. it was the night ,ELVIS died how rock n roll is that ? buy the book and i swear you won't be disappointed ! peace, travis davidson **********
3542538
A great read for anyone interested in seeing Detroit from an internal and truly unique vantage point.  Detroiters, Firefighters, and those interested in the cultural dynamics of Detroit will all find this book interesting.
1575281
Thank you Stephen Mack Jones for a thoroughly enjoyable novel!  Your writing is great.  I enjoyed the tour and learning about the neighborhoods of Detroit. I didn't know about the old money neighborhoods. I'm from California and I love Mexican food!  The corruption is not unique to Detroit, but, I think, is more widespread in Washington DC. I wish your next novel would be about Washington!  I've never been to Michigan but Michael Moore is one of my heroes. I can see why, in spite of Flint, Michigan is Trump land and I hope the aspirations of millions of unemployed factory workers get jobs back but I somehow doubt it. Still, I see hope in the novel from the people who love their old neighborhoods, love thier families and want to live.
1907914
Full disclosure: I know the author.

But I know him due to our mutual love for the Pontiac brand, which may have been #3 in sales in its prime but was #1 in the minds of many in Detroit. Sure, the GTO started something no one had expected, but it was Pontiac's image and styling that caught the eye of many a designer and marketer in the Motor City - everyone was watching what Pontiac was doing.

Even with all that equity, Pontiac generally doesn't receive the glory that Chevrolet and Ford receive, which makes Don's book all the more special. After all, who better than the Pontiac hobby's preeminent historian to cover the vehicles that inspired what we ended up drooling over on the street?

Like all concepts and show cars, sometimes they could be an acquired taste, yet it's always interesting to see what designers were thinking, especially when they were given free reign to be brave.

Summaries of key chapters are as follows:
- Pre-war items like the Plexiglas World's Fair '39-40
- Pontiac and the Motorama Cars
- Bunkie's mission statement
- The Estes years
- Pinnacle of the Muscle Car Wars
- Fighting against the "malaise era"
- Driving Excitement
- The Swan Songs

This book is indispensable to the Pontiac enthusiast, but it also fills a gap for the Brand X fan who fancies Detroit (if not General Motors) at its peak.
1088708
If you want to know how it was inside West 43rd St. during the glory years of The New York Times (which has since moved to Eighth Ave.) this is the book to read.  Robert Phelps, who was the top editor in the Times' Washington Bureau for years and later executive editor of The Boston Globe gives a remarkably candid account of his tenure.  Sometimes that honesty results in exposing his own errors and misjudgments, but those are few.  The foibles of the most powerful editors in America are examined with the same honest and sharp eye.
For anyone who aspires to be an ethical journalist, this could be his or her bible.  And speaking of which, there's a healty dose of spirituality in this volume as well.  Overall, a compelling read.
1233664
I loved it. I am 1 hour from Detroit so I could vision the places he talked about in Detroit. Near the end of the book, I was yelling (out loud, at work) for him to do something. Don't want to give it out, instead read  the book.
1555876
Be prepared for pushback when and if you decide to recommend this book (or Mr. Kersey's website, below) to your family and friends; because this time the Truth actually IS "racist."

The author boldly goes where few have dared to go before: writing a heavily-footnoted, straightforward critique of what he terms BRA or B(lack) R(un) A(merica). This volume in his single-city series of books documents the precipitous decline of Detroit, from "The Paris of the West" to a place where wild animals roam some of the more desolate areas. While covering the last 100 years, "Escape..." touches only briefly on the period prior to the city's watershed moment, the Riots of 1967, given its primary goal is to illustrate the destruction begun then, and wreaked thereafter by Black "leadership" in all corridors of City government.

If you choose to read front-to-back, note that the "chapters" are (I believe) articles taken directly from Mr. Kersey's website ([...] This is to say be prepared to read about certain events/themes/personalities-and-their-shenanigans MULTIPLE TIMES. (I consider it like school: remember repeating those blasted times' tables to learn them?)

While I could point out numerous glitches in Editing or Layout, I cannot dissuade an HONEST seeker of the Truth from buying and reading this or any of Kersey's other books. The information just doesn't exist in such a condensed form anywhere that I've found.
2804247
This is a good read for someone who admittedly does not write true-crime to begin with.  I agree with her on many points but feel she dropped the ball when looking at the main patrons listed in the store that day.  A closer look at those individuals might reveal an accomplice or a trend in behavior.
Overall a great read from this Michigan author.  I enjoyed her "voice" in the story and honesty about the failings of the Michigan police system.  I read aloud, many times, as she can really turn a phrase.
This book will have you googling the crime, even if you grew up hearing about it.
3963076
I was blown away! We left in 1986 and have only been back once or twice. I wasn't aware of much that has transpired there since; it's bad but no surprise. I'm old enough to remember the last of Detroit's glory days, and it's all such a shame.
3992525
Reflecting a deep understanding of, and affection for, the complex psychological makeup of Detroit - and Detroiters - Galster's choice and use of words and phrases allows any reader the opportunity to know what, indeed, 'drives Detroit'. It is even a more powerful experience for anyone who has ever called Detroit home - a 'must read' that will leave native Detroiter stunned with self-understanding.