There are many excellent books on Detroit's history. Several that come highly recommended (and are frequent sources on DetroitWiki) include:

Origins of the Urban Crisis

Sugrue, Thomas. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit.

This is the most acclaimed account of Detroit's history. It challenges conventional narratives about Detroit, arguing that the city's urban crisis is rooted in the social inequalities of the 1940s and 1950s.

Arc of Justice

Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age (2004)

This history of housing discrimination in Detroit focuses on the case of Dr. Ossian Sweet, whose purchase of a house on Garland Ave inflamed racial tension and lead to riots in which a member of the household shot one of the whites surrounding the home. Written in a narrative style, Boyle uses deep document analysis and a accessible prose to tell a detailed yet factually accurate story. The book also covers many of the major national civil rights activists, including Clarence Darrow and Frank Murphy.

The Changing Face of Inequality

Zunz, Olivier. The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development, and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880-1920. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Using a unique Census sampling method, along with detailed document analysis, Zunz challenges several major historical conceptions about the formation of industrial cities between 1880 and 1920. He uses Detroit as a case study, mapping neighborhood, ethnic, racial, and class change across time.

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