Great Lakes Books Series
Series · 80
books · 1888-2016
Books in series
#6
Uppermost Canada
The Western District and the Detroit Frontier, 1800-1850
2002
Uppermost Canada examines the historical, cultural, and social history of the Canadian portion of the Detroit River community in the first half of the nineteenth century. The phrase "Uppermost Canada," denoting the western frontier of Upper Canada (modern Ontario), was applied to the Canadian shore of the Detroit River during the War of 1812 by a British officer, who attributed it to President James Madison. The Western District was one of the partly-judicial, partly-governmental municipal units combining contradictory arisocratic and democratic traditions into which the province was divided until 1850. With its substantial French-Canadian population and its veneer of British officialdom, in close proximity to a newly American outpost, the Western District was potentially the most unstable. Despite all however, Alan Douglas demonstrates that the Western District endured without apparent change longer than any of the others.
#7
Seasons of Grace
A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit (Great Lakes Books
1990
Seasons of Grace is a history of the Catholic Church and community in southern lower Michigan from the 1830s through the 1950s. More than a chronicle of clerical successions and institutional expansion, the book also examines those social and cultural influences that affected the development of the Catholic community.
To document the course of institutional growth in the diocese, Tentler devotes a portion of the book to tracing the evolution of administrative structures at the Chancery and the founding of parishes, parochial schools, and social welfare organizations. Substantial attention is also given to the social history of the Catholic community, reflected in changes in religious practice, parish life and governance, and the role of women in church organizations and in devotional activities. Tentler also discusses the issue of Catholics in state and local politics and Catholic practice with regard to abortion, contraception, and intermarriage.
#8
Toast of the Town
The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson
1998
As part of the great migration of southern blacks to the north, Sunnie Wilson came to Detroit from South Carolina after graduating from college, and soon became a pillar of the local music industry. He started out as a song and dance performer but found his niche as a local promoter of boxing, which allowed him to make friends and business connections quickly in the thriving industrial city of Detroit. Part oral history, memoir, and biography, Toast of the Town draws from hundreds of hours of taped conversations between Sunnie Wilson and John Cohassey, as Wilson reflected on the changes in Detroit over the last sixty years. Supported by extensive research, Wilson’s reminiscences are complemented by photographs from his own collection, which capture the spirit of the times.
Through Sunnie Wilson’s narrative, Detroit’s glory comes alive, bringing back nights at the hopping Forest Club on Hastings Street, which hosted music greats like Nat King Cole and boasted the longest bar in Michigan, and sunny afternoons at Lake Idlewild, the largest black resort in the United States that attracted thousands every weekend from all over the Midwest. An influential insider’s perspective, Toast of the Town fills a void in the documented history of Detroit’s black and entertainment community from the 1920s to the present.
#10
Queen of the Lakes
1994
This book is an account of the ships that have borne the name "Queen of the Lakes," an honorary title indicating that, at the time of its launching, a ship is the longest on the Great Lakes. In one of the most comprehensive books ever written on the maritime history of the lakes, Mark L. Thompson presents a vignette of each of the dozens of ships that have held the title, chronicling the dates the ship sailed, its dimensions, the derivation of its name, its role in the economic development of the region, and its sailing history. Through the stories of the individual ships, Thompson also describes the growth of ship design on the Great Lakes and the changing nature of the shipping industry on the lakes.
The launching of the first ship on Lake Ontario in 1678 - the diminutive Frontenac, a small, two-masted vessel of only about ten tons and no more than forty or forty-five feet long - set in motion an evolutionary process that has continued for more than three hundred years. That ship is the direct ancestor of all the ships that ever have operated on the Great Lakes, from the Str. Onoko, launched in 1882 and the first ship to bear the name Queen of the Lakes; to the Str. W. D. Rees, which held its title for only a few weeks, to today's Queen, the Tregurtha, the longest ship on the lakes since its launching in 1981.
Although ships on the Great Lakes may be surpassed in size and efficiency by many of the modern ocean freighters, Thompson notes that the ships now sailing on the great freshwater seas of North America have achieved a level of operating mastery that is unrivaled anywhere else in the world, considering the inherent limitations of the Great Lakes system. The Tregurtha reigns as a model of unsurpassed maritime craftsmanship and as heir to a long and glorious tradition of excellence. Every magnificent ship that has borne the title in the past has contributed in some part to the greatness embodied in the Tregurtha. In time, her title as Queen of the Lakes will pass to another monumental freighter that will carry the art and science of shipbuilding and operation to even greater heights.
#11
John Jacob Astor
Business and Finance in the Early Republic
1991
John Jacob Astor was the best-known and most important American businessman for more than a half-century. His career encompassed the country's formative economic years from the precarious days following the American Revolution to the emergence of an urban-centered manufacturing economy in the late 1840s. Change was the dominant motif of the period, and Astor either exemplified the varied economic, social, and political changes in his business career or he directly affected the course of events.
In this biography of John Jacob Astor, John Denis Haeger uses Astor's life and his career as a merchant, fur trader, and land speculator as vehicles for examining several important themes and issues in American economic and urban development between 1790 and 1860. Haeger addresses, in fascinating detail, the complexity of Astor's business endeavors, his extensive connections with the country's dominant political figures, and the "modern" business strategies and managerial techniques that he used to build his business empire.
Astor was clearly not a business revolutionary who radically altered an existing system. He was, however, an entrepreneur who exerted a profound change on an industry. He fascinated his contemporaries precisely because he so mirrored his age and its changing business and economic patterns. He grasped the greater size and complexity of an emerging commercial economy in post-Revolutionary America and adopted strategies and structures that transformed the fur and China trades. His investment in city real estate, stocks, bonds, and even a western city made him part of America's evolution into an urbanindustrial society. For his era, John Astor's career was remarkable for its modernity, vision, and reflection of American economic and political values.
More than just a personal biography, John Jacob Astor combines economic theories with a fascinating narrative that demonstrates, like no other book has, Astor's impact on the early republic.
#12
Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes
1991
The Great Lakes shipping industry can trace its lineage to 1679 with the launching on Lake Erie of the Griffon, a sixty-foot galley weighing nearly fifty tons. Built by LaSalle, a French explorer who had been commissioned to search for a passage through North America to China, it was the first sailing ship to operate on the upper lakes, signaling the dawn of the Great Lakes shipping industry as we know it today.
Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes is the most thorough and factual study of the Great Lakes shipping industry written this century. Author Mark L. Thompson tells the fascinating story of the world's most efficient bulk transportation system, describing the Great Lakes freighters, the cargoes of the great ships,and the men and women who have served as crew. He documents the dramatic changes that have taken places in the industry and looks at the critical role that Great Lakes shipping plays in the economic well-being of the U.S. and Canada, despite the fact tat the size of the fleet and the amount of cargo carried have declined dramatically in recent years.
Spanning more than three centuries, from LaSalle's voyage in 1679, through 1975 with the mysterious sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, to life aboard today's thousand-foot behemoths, this important volume documents the evolution of the industry through its "Golden Age" at the end of the nineteenth century to the present, with a downsized U.S. fleet that numbers fewer than seventy vessels.
#13
Detroit on Stage
The Players Club, 1910-2005
2007
Founded in 1910, Detroit s Players club is an all-male club devoted to the production of theater by members for other members enjoyment. Called simply The Players, members of the club design, direct, and act in the shows, including playing the female roles. In Detroit on Stage, Marijean Levering takes readers behind the scenes of the club s private frolics to explore the unique history of The Players, discover what traditions they still hold dear, and examine why they have survived relatively unscathed through changes that have shuttered older and more venerable institutions.
#14
"Expanding the Frontiers of Civil Rights"
Michigan, 1948-1968
2000
Although historians have devoted a great deal of attention to the development of federal government policy regarding civil rights in the quarter century following World War II, little attention has been paid to the equally important developments at the state level. Few states underwent a more dramatic transformation with regard to civil rights than Michigan did. In 1948, the Michigan Committee on Civil Rights characterized the state of civil rights in Michigan as presenting "an ugly picture." Twenty years later, Michigan was a leader among the states in civil rights legislation. "Expanding the Frontiers of Civil Rights" documents this important shift in state level policy and makes clear that civil rights in Michigan embraced not only blacks but women, the elderly, native Americans, migrant workers, and the physically handicapped.
#21
Adversity and Justice
A History of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
2016
Bankruptcy law is a major part of the American legal landscape. More than a million individuals and thousands of businesses sought relief in the United States’ ninety-three bankruptcy courts in 2014, more than twenty-seven thousand of them in the Eastern District of Michigan. Important business of great consequence takes place in the courts, yet they ordinarily draw little public attention. In Adversity and Justice: A History of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Kevin Ball takes a closer look at the history and evolution of this court.
Using a variety of sources from newspaper accounts and interviews to personal documentation from key people throughout the court’s history, Ball explores not only the history of the court from its beginning in the late nineteenth century but also two major courthouse scandals and their significant and long-lasting effects on the court. The first, in 1919, resulted in the removal of a court referee for a series of small infractions. The second was far more serious and resulted in the resignation of a judge and criminal convictions of the court’s chief clerk, one of his deputies, and one of Detroit’s most prominent lawyers.
The book culminates with a comprehensive account of the city of Detroit’s own bankruptcy case that was filed in 2013. Drawing on the author’s expertise as both a longtime bankruptcy attorney and a political scientist, the book examines this landmark case in its legal, social, historical, and political contexts. Anyone with an interest in bankruptcy, legal history, or the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy case will be attracted to this thorough case study of this court.
#22
A Beaver Tale
The Castors of Conners Creek
2016
When Detroit was settled over three hundred years ago, beavers (then known by the French name "castors") were one of the most numerous and important animals in North America. Yet the aggressive beaver pelt trade in Detroit and elsewhere decimated the animal's population, and the region's remaining beavers were unable to reestablish their homes in the city's industrial landscape once the trapping ended. In A Beaver The Castors of Conners Creek, author and illustrator Gerald Wykes tells the incredible story of one beaver family's return to the Detroit River in 2008, more than one hundred years after beavers were last seen in the area.
Wykes shows readers how the beavers were discovered at the Conners Creek Power Plant on the city's east side, after people noticed trees were being mysteriously cut down. He combines real observations of this pioneering beaver colony with background about the important history of the beaver in Michigan, from its relationship to the Native occupants of the Great Lakes to its "discovery" by Europeans as a source of valuable furs. He explores some of the beaver's unique physical features, including its impressively webbed hind feet, delicate fingered "hands," waterproof fur, and famous flat tail, and also explains how today's strict pollution laws and shoreline improvements have turned the Detroit River into a hospitable place for beavers once again.
Wykes' full-color illustrations and kid-friendly text tell a serious tale of environmental recovery in a fun and accessible way. Young readers aged 8 to 12 will enjoy the unique natural and cultural history in A Beaver Tale .
#25
Justus S. Stearns
Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845-1933
2015
Near the turn of the twentieth century, "Pine King" Justus S. Stearns was Michigan’s largest producer of manufactured lumber and the owner of a prosperous coal mining operation headquartered in Stearns, Kentucky, a town he founded. Over the course of his career, Stearns would own at least thirty manufacturing businesses—making everything from finished lumber to kitchen utensils, game boards, and motors—as well as hotels, a railroad, and a power company. He was also an active member of the Republican Party who served one term as Michigan’s secretary of state and a philanthropist who gave a great deal of his wealth to causes in both Michigan and Kentucky. In Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845–1933, author Michael W. Nagle details Stearns' astounding range of accomplishments and explores the influence of both paternalism and Social Darwinism in his business practices.
Nagle begins by addressing key events in the first few decades of Stearns’s life and his initial foray into the lumber industry. Subsequent chapters explore Stearns’s political career, his timber operations in Wisconsin, and his coal, lumber, and railroad operations in Kentucky and Tennessee. Nagle also details the ancillary businesses that Stearns founded or purchased in the early twentieth century, even as his Stearns Salt & Lumber Company served as the anchor of his Michigan holdings, while Stearns Coal & Lumber did the same for his operations in Kentucky. The final chapter offers an overview and analysis of Stearns’s lifetime of accomplishments, including his impact on the town of Ludington, Michigan, where he maintained a residence for over fifty years.
Nagle makes extensive use of primary source material from several historical archives as well as contemporary newspaper accounts, court documents, company records, and other primary sources. American history scholars, as well as general readers interested in Michigan’s lumbering era and Kentucky’s mining history, will enjoy this biography of an exceptionally influential businessman.
#27
Asian Americans in Michigan
Voices from the Midwest
2015
While the number of Asians in Michigan was small for a good portion of the state’s history, many Asian-derived communities have settled in the area and grown significantly over time. In Asian Americans in Michigan: Voices from the Midwest, editors Sook Wilkinson and Victor Jew have assembled forty-one contributors to give an intimate glimpse into Michigan’s Asian-American communities, creating a fuller picture of these often overlooked groups. Accounts in the collection come from a range of perspectives, including first-generation immigrants, those born in the United States, and third- and fourth-generation Americans of Asian heritage.
In five sections, contributors consider the historical and demographic origins of Michigan’s Asian American communities, explore their experiences in memory and legacy keeping, highlight particular aspects of community culture and heritage, and comment on prospects and hopes for the future. This volume’s vibrant mix of contributors trace their ancestries back to East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan), and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Hmong). Though each contributor writes from his or her unique set of experiences, Asian Americans in Michigan also reveals universal values and memories held by larger communities.
Asian Americans in Michigan makes clear the significant contributions by individuals in many fields—including art, business, education, religion, sports, medicine, and politics—and demonstrates the central role of community organizations in bringing ethnic groups together and preserving memories. Readers interested in Michigan history, sociology, and Asian American studies will enjoy this volume.
#28
Mapping Detroit
Land, Community, and Shaping a City
2015
One of Detroit's most defining modern characteristics-and most pressing dilemmas-is its huge amount of neglected and vacant land. In Mapping Detroit: Land, Community, and Shaping a City, editors June Manning Thomas and Henco Bekkering use chapters based on a variety of maps to shed light on how Detroit moved from frontier fort to thriving industrial metropolis to today's high-vacancy city. With contributors ranging from a map archivist and a historian to architects, urban designers, and urban planners, Mapping Detroit brings a unique perspective to the historical causes, contemporary effects, and potential future of Detroit's transformed landscape.
To show how Detroit arrived in its present condition, contributors in part 1, Evolving Detroit: Past to Present, trace the city's beginnings as an agricultural, military, and trade outpost and map both its depopulation and attempts at redevelopment. In part 2, Portions of the City, contributors delve into particular land-related systems and neighborhood characteristics that encouraged modern social and economic changes. Part 2 continues by offering case studies of two city neighborhoods-the Brightmoor area and Southwest Detroit-that are struggling to adapt to changing landscapes. In part 3, Understanding Contemporary Space and Potential, contributors consider both the city's ecological assets and its sociological fragmentation to add dimension to the current understanding of its emptiness. The volume's epilogue offers a synopsis of the major points of the 2012 Detroit Future City report, the city's own strategic blueprint for future land use.
Mapping Detroit explores not only what happens when a large city loses its main industrial purpose and a major portion of its population but also what future might result from such upheaval. Containing some of the leading voices on Detroit's history and future, Mapping Detroit will be informative reading for anyone interested in urban studies, geography, and recent American history.
#31
"Old Slow Town"
Detroit during the Civil War
2013
Though it was located far away from Southern battlefields, Detroit churned with unrest during the American Civil War. The city's population, including a large German and Irish immigrant community, mostly aligned with anti-war Democrats while the rest of the state stood with the pro-Lincoln Republicans. The virulently anti-Lincoln and anti-Black Detroit Free Press fanned the city's flames with provocative coverage of events. In "Old Slow Town": Detroit during the Civil War, award-winning author Paul Taylor contends that the anger within Detroit's diverse political and ethnic communities over questions about the war's purpose and its conduct nearly tore the city in two.
Taylor charts Civil War-era Detroit's evolution from a quiet but growing industrial city (derisively called "old slow town" by some visitors) to a center of political contention and controversy. In eight chapters, Taylor details topics including the pre-war ethnic and commercial development of the city; fear and suspicion of "secret societies"; issues of race, gender, and economic strife during the war; Detroit's response to its soldiers' needs; and celebration and remembrance at the conclusion of the conflict. Taylor's use of rarely seen military correspondence from the National Archives, soldier and civilian diaries and letters, period articles and editorials from Detroit's Civil War-era newspapers, and his fresh, judicious synthesis of secondary sources results in a captivating depiction of Detroit's Civil War history.
Until now, why events occurred as they did in Detroit during the Civil War and what life was like for its residents has only been touched upon in any number of general histories. Readers interested in American history, Civil War history, or the ethnic history of Detroit will appreciate the full picture of the time period Taylor presents in "Old Slow Town."
#35
Among the Enemy
A Michigan Soldier's Civil War Journal
2013
Though many Union soldiers wrote about their experiences in the American Civil War, few had the vantage point of William Horton Kimball, a member of the First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics. As a military engineer, Kimball spent most of his time behind the major lines of conflict and often worked among civilians who sympathized with the enemy. In Among the Enemy: A Michigan Soldier's Civil War Journal, author Mark Hoffman presents Kimball's journal as a unique window into wartime experience.
Kimball was a prolific writer, and his journal is full of detailed accounts of expeditions into a hostile countryside, the bitter war against guerillas, and of the civilians caught in the middle of a traditional war waged with nontraditional means. He comments freely and openly on the strengths and weaknesses of his officers and comrades caught up in the same war. At the same time, Kimball provides moving accounts of when the Engineers were thrown into the line of battle at Perryville and Lavergne and proved themselves as soldiers capable of traditional combat. Through Kimball's account, readers can chart the important evolution of Union war policy regarding occupied populations, as well as how the American views of warfare broke down when combat moved from battlefield to countryside and soldiers in the rear became important targets for enemy action. Civil War historian Mark Hoffman introduces Kimball's writings and provides some background on Kimball's life as a soldier. He accompanies the journal entries with illustrations and maps.
Kimball's account reminds readers that there was a time when Americans who honored the same founders and national holidays were seeking to kill each other in a bitter war behind the lines of traditional armies. Readers interested in military history and the Civil War will enjoy the inside perspective of Among the Enemy.
#37
The Amphibians and Reptiles of Michigan
A Quaternary and Recent Faunal Adventure
2012
With its temperate climate and variety of habitats, Michigan supports a diverse array of animals and plants, including fifty-four species of amphibians and reptiles. The dispersal and biology of the Michigan herpetofauna—amphibians and reptiles—is even more unique because Michigan consists of two peninsulas that project into large freshwater seas and also because it was completely covered by a massive ice sheet a relatively short time ago. In The Amphibians and Reptiles of Michigan: A Quaternary and Recent Faunal Adventure, author J. Alan Holman explores the state's amphibians and reptiles in detail and with many helpful illustrations, making this the only volume of its kind available.
Holman uniquely bridges the gap between neo- and paleoherpetology and shows that Michigan's modern herpetofaunas reflect Pleistocene (ice age) and Holocene (warm period after the ice age) events, as the entire modern population was forced to re-invade the state after the last withdrawal of ice. In Part 1, Holman discusses Michigan as an amphibian and reptile habitat, including a geological, climatic, and vegetational history. Part 2 presents recent species accounts, covering all fifty-four species of amphibians and reptiles, along with their general distribution, Michigan distribution (with range maps), geographic variation, habitat and habits, reproduction and growth, diet, predation and defense, interaction with humans, behavioral characteristics, population health, and general remarks. In Part 3, Holman examines the Michigan herpetofauna in Quaternary and recent historical times and the species accounts include Pleistocene, Holocene, and archaeological records.
Color photographs of major herpetological habitats in Michigan are provided and color photographs of all modern species are included. Black-and-white illustrations depict both modern and ancient speicies. Herpetologists, paleontologists, zoologists, ecologists, and general biologists, as well as anyone who loves salamanders, frogs, turtles, and snakes will appreciate the comprehensive research presented in The Amphibians and Reptiles of Michigan.
#38
Geology and Landscape of Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Vicinity
2012
Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was established in 1966 to preserve one of the most exquisite freshwater coastal landscapes in North America. Located between Munising and Grand Marais on Lake Superior, the rugged coastline is anchored by the Pictured Rocks cliffs―soaring sandstone fortresses awash with natural pink, green, and brown pigments. While the Pictured Rocks' geologic history is generally well understood by scientists, much of this information is scattered among different sources and not easily accessible to general readers. In Geology and Landscape of Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Vicinity, William L. Blewett synthesizes published and unpublished information on the park's geologic history and combines it with vivid color photographs, detailed maps, and diagrams of the area.
Blewett examines the history and geology of the very ancient Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician components of the Pictured Rocks dating back hundreds of millions of years, as well as the much younger unconsolidated Pleistocene (ice age) and Holocene (warm period since the ice age, including the modern landscape) sediments mantling the bedrock, most of which are no older than 12,000 years. He also details the history of the Lake Superior basin, tracing the events that shaped the modern shoreline from ancient times. For visitors to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Blewett has provided a detailed mileage-referenced road log to guide readers to the best and most accessible field sites, and, for the more adventurous, includes a day hike keyed to the geology. A comprehensive bibliography and index are also included at the end of the book for further research.
While it assumes an understanding of basic geologic principles, the volume is very readable and suitable for students, interested park visitors, and geologists, physical geographers, and those working in closely related fields such as archaeology, biology, ecology, and environmental science.
#39
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
People, Law, and Politics
2012
An excellent history of an important federal court.
#40
Lake Superior Profiles
People on the Big Lake
2012
Like Lake Superior itself, the communities of people surrounding the "Big Lake" are vast and full of variety, spanning state and international boundaries. In Lake Superior People on the Big Lake, author John Gagnon gives readers a sense of the memorable characters who inhabit the area without attempting to take an exhaustive inventory. Instead, Gagnon met people casually and interviewed them―from a tugboat captain to an iron ore boat captain, Native Americans, and fishery biologists. Different though their stories are, all share a steadfast character, an attachment to the moody lake, and a devotion to their work.
Lake Superior Profiles combines biography, history, folklore, religion, and humor in fifteen diverse chapters. In Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Gagnon visits the rivers, bays, small towns, larger cities, and nature preserves that surround Lake Superior to meet the people who make their homes there. Among those he meets are several fisherman, a botanist studying arctic wildflowers on Isle Royale, a former lighthouse keeper on a remote reef on the lake, a voyageur reenactor from Duluth, a woman who harvests wild rice each August in the Bad River Sloughs, and a monk living on the Keweenaw Peninsula. He also writes about three of the lake's major fish species, a rock formation steeped in lore called the Sleeping Giant, and the current fragile ecology of the Big Lake.
Engaging in style and varied in content, these profiles display Gagnon's natural curiosity and storytelling acumen in illustrating the many ways the lake shapes the lives of those near it. Residents of the Lake Superior region and readers interested in the area will enjoy Lake Superior Profiles.
#44
Monopoly on Wheels
Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent
2011
Horseless Age, XVI (September 13, 1905), 311, 322; Motor World, ... Motor World,
XVI (May 16, 1907), 287. 29. Horseless Age, XX (August 21, 1907), 253-254. ...
#45
The Color of Law
Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights
2010
In a working life that spanned half a century, Ernie Goodman was one of the nation's preeminent defense attorneys for workers and the militant poor. His remarkable career put him at the center of the struggle for social justice in the twentieth century, from the sit-down strikes of the 1930s to the Red Scare of the 1950s to the freedom struggles, anti-war demonstrations, and ghetto rebellions of the 1960s and 1970s. The Color of Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights traces Goodman's journey through these tumultuous events and highlights the many moments when changing perceptions of social justice clashed with legal precedent.
Authors Steve Babson, Dave Riddle, and David Elsila tell Goodman's life story, beginning with his formative years as the son of immigrant parents in Detroit's Jewish ghetto, to his early ambitions as a corporate lawyer, and his conversion to socialism and labor law during the Great Depression. From Detroit to Mississippi, Goodman saw police and other officials giving the "color of law" to actions that stifled freedom of speech and nullified the rights of workers and minorities. The authors highlight Goodman's landmark cases in defense of labor and civil rights and examine the complex relationships he developed along the way with individuals like Supreme Court Justice and former Michigan governor Frank Murphy, UAW president Walter Reuther, Detroit mayor Coleman Young, and congressman George Crockett. Drawing from a rich collection of letters, oral histories, court records, and press accounts, the authors re-create the compelling story of Goodman's life. The Color of Law demonstrates that the abuse of power is non-partisan and that individuals who oppose injustice can change the course of events.
#46
Hollowed Ground
Copper Mining and Community Building on Lake Superior, 1840s-1990s
2010
In Hollowed Ground, author Larry Lankton tells the story of two copper industries on Lake Superior-native copper mining, which produced about 11 billion pounds of the metal from the 1840s until the late 1960s, and copper sulfide mining, which began in the 1950s and produced another 4.4 billion pounds of copper through the 1990s. In addition to documenting companies and their mines, mills, and smelters, Hollowed Ground is also a community study. It examines the region's population and ethnic mix, which was a direct result of the mining industry, and the companies' paternalistic involvement in community building.
While this book covers the history of the entire Lake Superior mining industry, it particularly focuses on the three biggest, most important, and longest-lived Calumet & Hecla, Copper Range, and Quincy. Lankton shows the extent of the companies' influence over their mining locations, as they constructed the houses and neighborhoods of their company towns, set the course of local schools, saw that churches got land to build on, encouraged the growth of commercial villages on the margin of a mine, and even provided pasturage for workers' milk cows and space for vegetable gardens. Lankton also traces the interconnected fortunes of the mining communities and their companies through times of bustling economic growth and periods of decline and closure.
Hollowed Ground presents a wealth of images from Upper Michigan's mining towns, reflecting a century and a half of unique community and industrial history. Local historians, industrial historians, and anyone interested in the history of Michigan's Upper Peninsula will appreciate this informative volume.
#47
Storied Independent Automakers
Nash, Hudson, and American Motors
2009
With roots extending back to the first decade of the twentieth century, Nash Motor Company and the Hudson Motor Car Company managed to compete and even prosper as independent producers until they merged in 1954 to form the American Motors Company, which itself remained independent until it was bought in 1987 by the Chrysler Corporation. In Storied Independent Automakers, renowned automotive scholar Charles K. Hyde argues that these companies, while so far neglected by auto history scholars, made notable contributions to automotive engineering and styling and were an important part of the American automobile industry.
Hyde investigates how the relatively small corporations struggled in a postwar marketplace increasingly dominated by the giant firms of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, which benefited from economies of scale in styling, engineering, tooling, marketing, and sales. He examines the innovations that kept the independents' products distinctive from those of the Big Three and allowed them to survive and sometimes prosper against their larger competitors. Hyde also focuses on the visionary leaders who managed the companies, including Charles Nash, Roy D. Chapin, Howard Coffin, George Mason, George Romney, and Roy D. Chapin Jr., who have been largely unexamined by other scholars. Finally, Hyde analyzes the ultimate failure of the American Motors Company and the legacy it left for carmakers and consumers today.
Storied Independent Automakers is based on extensive research in archival collections generated by the three companies. Residing in large part in the DaimlerChrysler Corporate Collection, these sources have been seldom tapped by other scholars before this volume. Auto historians and readers interested in business history will enjoy Storied Independent Automakers.
#48
A Newscast for the Masses
The History of Detroit Television News
2009
As the chief source of information for many people and a key revenue stream for the country's broadcast conglomerates, local television news has grown from a curiosity into a powerful journalistic and cultural force. In A Newscast for the Masses, Tim Kiska examines the evolution of television news in Detroit, from its beginnings in the late 1940s, when television was considered a "wild young medium," to the early 1980s, when cable television permanently altered the broadcast landscape. Kiska shows how the local news, which was initially considered a poor substitute for respectable print journalism, became the cornerstone of television programming and the public's preferred news source.
Kiska begins his study in 1947 with the first Detroit television broadcast, made by WWJ-TV. Owned by the Evening News Association, the same company that owned the Detroit News, WWJ developed a credible broadcast news operation as a cross-promotional vehicle for the newspaper. Yet by the late 1960s WWJ was unseated by newcomers WXYZ-TV and WJBK-TV, whose superior coverage of the 1967 Detroit riots lured viewers away from WWJ. WXYZ-TV would eventually become the most powerful news outlet in Detroit with the help of its cash-rich parent company, the American Broadcasting Corporation, and its use of sophisticated survey research and advertising techniques to grow its news audience. Though critics tend to deride the sensationalism and showmanship of local television news, Kiska demonstrates that over the last several decades newscasts have effectively tailored their content to the demands of the viewing public and, as a result, have become the most trusted source of information for the average American and the most lucrative source of profit for television networks.
A Newscast for the Masses is based on extensive interviews with journalists who participated in the development of television in Detroit and careful research into the files of the McHugh & Hoffman consulting firm, which used social science techniques to discern the television viewing preferences of metro Detroiters. Anyone interested in television history or journalism will appreciate this detailed and informative study.
#49
Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation
2009
Though usually regarded as a footnote in automotive history, Maxwell Motor was one of the leading automobile producers in the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century, and its cars offered several innovations to buyers of the time. For instance, Maxwell's was the first popular car with its engine in front instead of under the body, the first to be designed with three-point suspension and shaft drive, and one of the earliest cars to feature thermo-syphon cooling. In Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation, Anthony J. Yanik examines the machines, the process, and the men behind Maxwell, describing both the vehicle engineering and the backroom wheeling and dealing that characterized the emergence and disappearance of the early auto companies.
In this detailed history, Yanik charts the company's evolution through the early Maxwell-Briscoe years, 1903-1912; the Maxwell Motor Company years, 1913-1920; and finally the Maxwell Motor Corporation years, 1921-1925. He considers the influential leaders, including Jonathan Maxwell, Benjamin Briscoe, Walter Flanders, and Walter P. Chrysler, who executed the business decisions and corporate mergers that shaped each tumultuous era, concluding with Chrysler's eventual deal to transfer all Maxwell assets to form a new Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Yanik also discusses the aftermath of Maxwell's dissolution and the fate of its famous corporate leaders. For this study, Yanik draws on a wealth of primary sources including old automotive trade journals, the writings of Ben Briscoe and William Durant, and company records in the Chrysler archives.
Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation fills a gap in existing automotive scholarship and proves that the Maxwell story is an excellent resource for documenting the development of the automobile industry in the early twentieth century. Auto buffs and local historians will appreciate Yanik's thorough and engaging look at this slice of automotive history.
#50
Art in Detroit Public Places
Third Edition
2008
The Detroit area is home to numerous significant works of public art in its parks, libraries, schools, and hospitals. This new and updated edition of a classic guidebook considers over 150 pieces organized by section into six geographical districts of metropolitan Detroit. Each of these sections is accompanied by a comprehensive street map for easy planning of walking or driving tours, and the artworks in it are presented with individual descriptive histories and photographs. With our artistic and architectural heritage always under threat from new development and sprawl, Art in Detroit Public Places showcases the rich tradition of public art already in our community and also raises awareness of the need for its preservation.
The vast collection of public art in metropolitan Detroit includes works by such important national and international figures as Alexander Calder, Gutzon Borglum, Sam Gilliam, Robert Graham, Carl Milles, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, and Auguste Rodin, as well as fine pieces by many noteworthy area artists. City founders, corporations, commercial developers, and private citizens have all contributed to this rich legacy, and many of the newly built public spaces in the area have been enlivened with artwork in recent years. This new and updated version of Art in Detroit Public Places adds more than thirty works to those considered in the previous edition, including Babcock and Ernstberger's Monroe and Woodward Monument Markers in the city's Campus Martius Park and Barr and De Giusti's Transcending in Hart Plaza.
As downtown Detroit and the surrounding areas continue to evolve and grow, Art in Detroit Public Places serves as a record of public art already in existence and a fitting justification for its protection. Art and architecture enthusiasts, along with anyone interested in the cityscape of Detroit, will enjoy this useful volume.
#51
Who's Jim Hines?
2008
Who's Jim Hines? is a story based on real events about Douglas Ford Jr., a twelve-year-old African American boy growing up in Detroit in the 1930s. Doug's father owns the Douglas Ford Wood Company, and Doug usually helps his dad around the scrap wood yard located in the side lot next to their house. But after Doug loses his school textbooks one day he is faced with the prospect of paying for new books and must join his father in the backbreaking work of delivering wood throughout the city and suburbs. Doug, who knows all of his father's delivery drivers, takes this opportunity to unravel the mystery of a man named Jim Hines whom he always hears about but has never seen. In discovering Hines' identity, Doug also learns much about the realities of racism in Depression-era Detroit.
As she tells Doug's story, author Jean Alicia Elster incorporates rich descriptions of daily life, including glimpses into Detroit's auto factories and unions, northern-style segregation, and color distinctions within the African American community. Elster also introduces readers to the Fords' neighborhood, a racially mixed community of Eastern European immigrants and southern blacks.
Readers from the ages of eight through twelve will enjoy the entertaining and educational story in Who's Jim Hines?
#52
A Picturesque Situation
Mackinac Before Photography, 1615-1860
2008
From the era of European exploration to the beginning of the Civil War, the Straits of Mackinac were a crucial link in the westward water transportation system of the United States. As the primary route to Lake Michigan and the Mississippi Valley, the Straits were a highway for the fur trade, a hotbed of military outposts, and one of the first settled areas of Michigan. Later, the natural beauty of the Straits, and particularly of Mackinac Island, led to the popularity of the area as a nineteenth-century tourist destination. A Picturesque Situation uses documents, maps, drawings, and prints to illustrate the unique history of the Straits from 1615 to 1860.
Beginning in the seventeenth century, Native Americans, soldiers, missionaries, traders, explorers, and scientists recorded their impressions of the Straits of Mackinac in letters, reports, diaries, books, and legal and financial documents. Military officers noted fortifications and topography, surveyors mapped boundaries, cartographers defined local geography, and travelers sketched scenery and local personalities. All of these rare and important glimpses of Mackinac before the age of the camera are elegantly presented in this oversized, full-color volume. The text of A Picturesque Situation complements its many images by detailing their history and incorporating the words and descriptions of people who visited or lived at the Straits before 1860.
Although much has been written about the history of the Straits of Mackinac, most works focus on narrow aspects of its history. Michigan historians and those interested in life in the pre-Civil War United States will appreciate the broad and striking picture of the Straits painted by A Picturesque Situation .
#53
Summer Dreams
The Story of Bob-Lo Island
2008
Located twenty miles south of Detroit where the Detroit River meets Lake Erie, Bob-lo Island was the ultimate summer playground for families from Detroit and Windsor for nearly one hundred years. In its heyday, the island housed an amusement park with one of the world's largest dance halls, an elegant restaurant, and a hand-carved carousel. It also employed two large Frank Kirby–designed ferry steamers―complete with dancing and other entertainment―to transport patrons to and from the island, which was not accessible by car. In Summer Dreams, author Patrick Livingston tells the story of Bob-lo from its discovery by French explorers to its subsequent use by missionaries, British military men, escaped slaves, farmers, and finally the wealthy class, who developed the island as a summer resort.
It was not until the Detroit, Belle Isle, and Windsor Ferry Company, looking to expand its business ventures, bought the island in 1898 that Bob-lo became known as a destination for Detroit's burgeoning middle class. The park provided the perfect place for Detroiters to dance and play and simply escape the whirlwind of what was rapidly becoming an industrial and mechanized city. Livingston notes that operation of the park presented special challenges to management teams over the course of the century, particularly in the running of its U.S.–based steamers and competition with modern amusement parks that could be reached by car. Livingston chronicles the island's recent history, including the final closure of the park in 1993, the auctioning of its steamers and rides, and its redevelopment as a community of multimillion-dollar homes.
With illustrations and personal profiles added to its historical narrative, Summer Dreams recounts the phases of Bob-lo's history and its importance to natives of Detroit, Windsor, and Amherstburg. Local historians and anyone with roots in Detroit and the Border Cities will enjoy this informative volume.
#55
Tracy W. McGregor
Humanitarian, Philanthropist, and Detroit Civic Leader
2008
In the turbulent era from 1890 to the late 1930s, Detroit emerged as a leading industrial and urban center and endured the crushing social and economic challenges of the Great Depression. It was during these years that Tracy W. McGregor, with the assistance of his wife, Katherine Whitney McGregor, established himself as a philanthropist and community leader. Though public buildings and a charitable foundation bear their names, relatively little is known about the private-minded McGregors, who avoided newspaper interviews or public exposure whenever possible.
In Tracy W. McGregor, Philip P. Mason scours the archival collections of the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, the State of Michigan, the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library and the Library of Congress to provide a comprehensive look at the remarkable work of the McGregors. Mason examines McGregor's successful campaigns to reform the political, judicial, and educational institutions in Detroit, as well as his establishment of mental health, correctional, and health care facilities in Michigan. In addition, Mason surveys McGregor's work as president of the prestigious Merrill-Palmer Institute and his major collection of Americana books, which now serves as the core of the University of Virginia Research Library.
In all, Mason shows how Tracy McGregor was able to establish a mission for homeless men, permanently endow a major foundation, and lead in the creation and support of a variety of charitable agencies without governmental assistance and with only the support of nascent philanthropic and business networks. For Detroit historians and those interested in philanthropy and social activism, Tracy W. McGregor will be enlightening reading.
#56
When You Come Home
A Wartime Courtship in Letters 1941-45
2007
Robert E. Quirk and his future wife, Marianne, were both Wayne State University students when they met and fell in love in 1941, but they were quickly parted when Quirk was drafted. Decades after their marriage and the end of the war, Quirk shares the letters they exchanged during World War II, which had been stowed in the attic of their home.
#57
Life with Mae
A Detroit Family Memoir
2007
In Life with Mae, the late Neal Shine combines an engaging memoir of his family life in prewar Detroit with a biography of his mother, Mae, whose vibrant spirit and fierce affection left an indelible mark on her three sons and their friends and neighbors.
Mae was born in 1909 in the small town of Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland, where her father ran the depot that distributed Guiness Stout. Going into service as a housekeeper at fourteen, Mae quickly saw that the only future she had in Ireland was as a servant. By the time she was eighteen, she had saved enough money from her housekeeping job for a one-way ticket to the United States, where she eventually settled in Detroit.
Shine, longtime editor and former publisher of the Detroit Free Press, tells his story in a series of entertaining interconnected vignettes, reflecting on his mother, his family life in Detroit, and later his journey to visit family in Ireland. Whether recounting Mae's feud with a local tavern owner, her distrust of the food sold by local grocers, or her standoff with a department store deliveryman who had come to repossess their furniture, Shine lovingly conveys his mother's fierce protective streak, her effervescent personality, and her outspoken identification with the poor. For fans of Shine's insightful and humorous storytelling, as well as fellow Detroiters and readers with Irish roots, Life with Mae will be an entertaining and satisfying read.
#58
Henry Ford
An Interpretation
2007
Regarded by many automotive historians as the finest and most dispassionate character study of Henry Ford ever written, Henry An Interpretation has long been out of print and priced out of the reach of many collectors. Published at the height of Ford's success in 1923, the volume was written by the Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, an Episcopalian minister who was also the head of the sociology department at Ford Motor Company. Instead of a history of Ford Motor Company or a simple retelling of Ford's life story, Marquis claims that his collection of essays is intended to analyze the "psychological puzzle such as the unusual mind and personality of Henry Ford presents."
In insightful chapters that can be read in any order, Marquis examines Ford's mastery of self-promotion, his invincible reputation, his religious views, and his "elusive" personality. He also considers Ford through the lens of his corporation by commenting on its industrial operations, its charitable causes, and its "executive scrap heap." According to many accounts, Henry Ford was greatly pained by the criticism in some of Marquis' essays, which led him to suppress the wide distribution of the volume. Indeed, so many copies of Henry An Interpretation were borrowed from the Detroit Public Library and never returned that the library was forced to remove the volume from its shelves. Not surprisingly, the original edition of this book is very expensive and hard to find as a result of these sorts of actions.
Ford history enthusiasts as well as readers who are interested in historical biography will be grateful for the reprint of this significant volume.
#60
Learning to Cook in 1898
A Chicago Culinary Memoir
2007
Learning to Cook in 1898 is more than just a cookbook or a collection of nostalgic recipes. While the volume does contain treasured family recipes, the book’s primary focus is on the efforts Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein took to educate herself about cooking, nutrition, health, and household management as a young, American-born, middle class Chicago bride of Jewish heritage at the turn of the century.
In this volume, author Ellen F. Steinberg analyzes primary material found in Irma’s "First Cook Book" and memoirs. She focuses on approximately one year in Irma’s life during which the bride-to-be collected recipes for a variety of entrees, vegetable dishes, soups, salads, tea sandwiches, baked goods, and desserts. Though many of these recipes have obvious German roots, some were clipped from local newspapers and women’s magazines, demonstrating Irma’s efforts to combine her family’s culinary traditions with modern American foodways. Eleanor Hanson, a culinary professional, worked with Steinberg to adapt more than eighty of the recipes for modern cooks.
Learning to Cook in 1898 offers insights into everyday life of the era, the sphere of women’s experience, and the customs of German and German-American communities in the Midwest. The text and recipes together will give readers interested in culinary history an opportunity not only to step back into the past but also to sample the rich tastes of those times.
#62
A Pocketful of Passage
2007
A Pocketful of Passage is based on the memories of Annie Bowen Hoge, whose father was a lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes for many years. Every summer until she was nine, Annie went with her brother, sister, and mother to live at Passage Island, where her father tended the signal that guided ships through an important shipping lane between Passage Island and Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
A Pocketful of Passage is told from the point of view of nine-year-old Annie, who loved living in the old, secluded lighthouse amid the breathtaking scenery of northern Michigan. Her surroundings provide a wonderland of places to play and explore. Annie's stories include boat trips to nearby Isle Royale ("the big island"), tales of mischief with visiting children, and a visit from the crew of a fishing boat lost in the lake. She also describes the day-to-day life of the lighthouse keepers, giving simple explanations about the purpose and the procedure of her father's job. Yet Annie's parents see beyond the adventures of Passage Island to recognize the danger for their young children, living isolated from doctors, stores, churches, and schools. When they tell Annie that this will be their final summer at Passage Island, her stories take on a new significance.
Loraine Campbell has combined Annie's recollections with extensive research about lighthouse keeping to present an informative and enjoyable account of Michigan history for young readers. Maps are also included to illustrate the locations mentioned in the book.
#63
A Badger Boy in Blue
The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke
2007
Chauncey H. Cooke enlisted in the Union army in 1862 at only sixteen, after lying about his age. Like many soldiers, Cooke saw only limited action in battle, but his letters to family members paint a realistic and compelling picture of daily life in the Civil War. Alongside dramatic descriptions of encounters with Indians, comrades, rebel prisoners, slaves, and Southern whites, Cooke also describes the boredom of camp, the chaos of battle, and the suffering caused by illness. Cooke's emotional closeness to his family, especially his mother, also comes across strongly in his letters, and readers will feel an instant connection to the young soldier through his words.
Among other collections of Civil War writings, A Badger Boy in Blue stands out because of the wealth of rich detail included in Cooke's letters. Readers are presented with an accurate picture of a soldier's daily life through Cooke's commentary on everything from the food he ate, to the weather, to the kind of paper that he used for writing. In addition, Cooke's descriptions of battle are valuable in offering fresh insight into the often-overlooked midwestern armies and campaigns. His descriptions of the siege of Vicksburg and the Atlanta Campaign are especially thoughtful and unique. The letters also present empathetic and colorful portraits of the frightened, defiant, and curious civilians that the army encountered along the way.
William Mulligan, Jr., provides an introduction and annotations in A Badger Boy in Blue to add expert commentary and context for Cooke's letters. Four maps are also included to clarify locations mentioned in the text. History buffs, scholars, and general readers interested in the Civil War will appreciate this thorough volume.
#65
In the Shadow of Detroit
Gordon M. Mcgregor, Ford of Canada, and Motoropolis
2006
Part biography and part corporate history, In the Shadow of Detroit investigates the life and career of Gordon M. McGregor, who founded and led Ford of Canada during the first two decades of the twentieth century. With no automotive background, minimal technical expertise, and only a few years of experience in business, McGregor came to Ford in 1904 from a failing wagon-building firm. David Roberts draws from diverse public and private historical sources to chronicle McGregor's swift ascension to corporate leader, including how McGregor attached himself to Henry Ford's meteoric rise, achieved remarkable success, and became for a time Windsor's preeminent industrialist and civic leader.
Roberts intertwines McGregor's corporate, civic, and personal lives to trace his pioneering role in the automobile industry. Some themes from McGregor's career that are considered here include company growth, the technical and cultural concept of the automobile, the impact of automotive transportation, technological reliance on Detroit, parent-branch relations, the effects of border proximity, industrial and political lobbying, labor relations, secondary manufacturing, public involvement, and the Great War. In addition, Roberts probes McGregor's often-subservient relationship with the enigmatic Henry Ford and examines how McGregor drew praise and political ire in calling for regional governance in the "Border Cities" opposite Detroit. In the years before his premature death, McGregor and his company dominated and defined the growing automotive industry in Windsor-Detroit, and their story deserves to be more widely known.
Both elegantly written and exhaustively researched, In the Shadow of Detroit will be enjoyable and informative reading for local historians and anyone interested in the automobile industry.
#69
"I Hope to Do My Country Service"
The Civil War Letters of John Bennitt, M.D., Surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry
2004
In 1862 at the age of thirty-two, Centreville, Michigan, physician John Bennitt joined the 19th Michigan Infantry Regiment as an assistant surgeon and remained in military service for the rest of the war. During this time Bennitt wrote more than two hundred letters home to his wife and daughters sharing his careful and detailed observations of army life, his medical trials in the field and army hospitals, dramatic battles, and character sketches of the many people he encountered, including his regimental comrades, captured Confederates, and local citizens in southern towns. Bennitt writes about the war’s progress on both the battlefield and the home front, and also reveals his changing view of slavery and race.
Bennitt traces the history of the 19th Michigan Infantry, from its mustering in Dowagiac in August 1862, its duty in Kentucky and Tennessee, its capture and imprisonment by Confederate forces, its subsequent exchange and reorganization, its participation in the Atlanta and the Carolinas campaigns, its place in the Grand Review in Washington, and the final mustering out in Detroit in June 1865. John Bennitt’s significant collection of letters sheds light not only on the Civil War but on the many aspects of life in a small Michigan town. Although a number of memoirs from Civil War surgeons have been published in the last decade, "I Hope to Do My Country Service" is the first of its kind from a Michigan regimental surgeon to appear in more than a century.
#70
Talking Shops
Detroit Commercial Folk Art
2004
Cruise down the inner-city streets of Detroit and your eyes take in an array of familiar images of poverty and decay. What renowned photographer David Clements sees on these gritty Detroit streets are the ad displays on so many local businesses, including salons, churches, and car washes. In Talking Shops, Clements captures mural facades that transform what might have been a typical urban landscape into a canvas for some of the city's most vibrant folk art. With more than 130 full-color photographs, this delightful book uncovers such treasures as the "Mr. Foote Hand Car Wash," and the "Kill Them Dead" roach exterminator. Yet for all their whimsy, these subjects were created by artists who have used brilliant colors, meticulous words, and aggressive messages that seem to talk, if not shout, to passersby.
#72
Eight Steamboats
Sailing Through the Sixties
2004
In the 1960s, an era of widespread social turbulence, the shipping industry in the Great Lakes was on the threshold of immense change. Developed during World War II, the U.S. merchant fleet faced threatening competition from the newer Canadian fleet. The demand for iron ore skyrocketed as baby boomers matured into the age of auto and appliance buying. To meet the increasing need, there was talk of expanding the size of the Soo Locks to accommodate larger vessels and even of lengthening the shipping season. It was glaringly obvious that a time of change was upon the aging U.S. ships and even more so on the men who sailed them.
Eight Steamboats chronicles Patrick Livingston's adventures on eight shipping vessels―only one of which survives―during the 1960s. Told from the perspective of a writer who sails rather than a sailor who writes, the tales are spiced with connections between shore and sea. While the city of Detroit burned in 1967, Livingston served milkshakes to passengers on the South American of the Georgian Bay Lines. Later, Livingston sailed with the notorious George "Bughouse" Schultz on the ill-starred tanker Mercury. When financial need forced him to forgo a trip to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he sailed Lake Michigan instead. In subsequent years, he dropped out of school to catch the mailboat to his ships as they transited the Detroit River. With lively dialogue, Livingston details his experiences up to his signing off the Champlain in 1972 and then setting sail for landlocked Nepal to work with the Peace Corps. Both maritime and Great Lakes enthusiasts will enjoy this voyage back to the early years of the Great Lakes shipping industry.
#74
Roy D. Chapin
The Man Behind the Hudson Motor Car Company
2003
"John Cuthbert Long's Roy D. Chapin is a thorough and detailed biography of a remarkable, but little-known Detroit automobile industry pioneer. Historians should include Roy Dikeman Chapin (February 23, 1880–February 16, 1936) in any listing of significant American auto industry pioneers, along with the Duryea brothers, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Leland, Henry Ford, William C. Durant, and the Dodge brothers. Outside the cloister of automotive historians, Roy Chapin is an unknown. This is in part because no company or car bore his name. Unlike many contemporary auto pioneers, Roy Chapin was a modest man who did not promote himself. Even Long's superb biography of Chapin is not well-known because it was privately printed in 1945 with a small press run. In reprinting this volume, Wayne State University Press is making an important contribution to automotive history."
―From the introduction by Charles K. Hyde, Department of History, Wayne State University
#77
Henry's Lieutenants
1993
Although Henry Ford gloried in the limelight of highly publicized achievement, he privately admitted, "I don't do so much, I just go around lighting fires under other people."
Henry's Lieutenants features biographies of thirty-five "other people" who served Henry Ford in a variety of capacities, and nearly all of whom contributed to his fame. These biographical sketches and career highlights reflect the people of high caliber employed by Henry Ford to accomplish his Harry Bennett, Albert Kahn, Ernest Kanzler, William S. Knudsen, and Charles E. Sorenson, among others. Most were employed by the Ford Motor Company, although a few of them were Ford's personal employees satisfying concurrent needs of a more private nature, including his farming, educational, and sociological ventures.
Ford Bryan obtained a considerable amount of the material in this book from the oral reminiscences of the subjects themselves.
#78
The Last Good Water
Prose and Poetry, 1988-2003
2003
Michael Delp conjures with his writing the intense pull of nature on Michiganders and he allows the reader to discover―or rediscover―the marvels of life and sport amidst the Great Lakes. This collection of new work, along with some of Delp's important earlier work, will inspire anyone with a fondness for water, fishing, and Michigan's great outdoors.
Delp's writing is richly nuanced and sharply imaged with an authenticity that comes only from someone native to such experiences. His engaging portraits of Michigan, its freshwater landscapes, and their many invocations can function as metaphor for larger philosophical and ecological issues, but the first aim of The Last Good Water is to draw readers back to nature and allow them to relish its splendor. This collection is an important addition to the library of the creative, the ecocritical, and above all, the outdoorsmen and women of the Midwest.
#81
Beyond the Windswept Dunes
The Story of Maritime Muskegon
2003
Beyond the Windswept Dunes takes the reader into a world of maritime adventure as it was experienced by the sailors, passengers, rescue workers, shipping magnates, industrialists, and many other people whose livelihoods revolved around Michigan's port city of Muskegon. At one time the leading edge of westward expansion, Muskegon was a place where lumbering and lakers merged and where rails met decks, a place situated midway along the coast of a great and sometimes stormy inland sea. Here Elizabeth Sherman offers both a shipping history and a portrait of the city. The events covered range from the visit by the British sloop H.M.S. Felicity in 1779 through Muskegon's boom years as "Lumber Queen of the World," from the city's revitalization with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to its recent establishment of a floating museum complex for historic naval vessels.
The book's focus is on the ships themselves―such as the Lyman M. Davis, Salvor, Highway 16, and Milwaukee Clipper―vessels that were noteworthy for being the first of their kind or for their popularity, unusual and distinctive careers, or tragic losses. A number of ships were lost in Lake Michigan near Muskegon Harbor, and the stories of some of the most notable wrecks and rescue missions appear in this book, including the psychic intervention that led the William Nelson to the exciting rescue of the crew aboard the sinking Our Son. The book offers many first-hand statements of shipwreck survivors and other witnesses, lending an authentic voice to the accounts.
#82
The French Canadians of Michigan
Their Contribution to the Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840-1914
2003
Most information regarding the French Canadians in Michigan concerns those who settled during the French period. However, another significant migration occurred during the industrial period of the nineteenth century, when many French Canadians settled in the Saginaw Valley and on the Keweenaw Peninsula―two regions characteristic of Michigan's economic development in the nineteenth century. The lumber industry of the Saginaw Valley and the copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula provided very different challenges to French Canadian settlers as they tried to find ways to adapt to changing environments and industrial realities.
The French Canadians of Michigan looks at the factors behind the French Canadian immigration by providing a statistical profile of the migratory movement as well as analysis of the strategies used by French Canadians to cope with and adapt to new environments. Using federal manuscript censuses, parochial archives, and government reports, Jean Lamarre closely examines who the immigrants were, the causes of their migration, their social and geographical itinerary, and the reasons they chose Michigan as their destination. Besides comparing the different settlements in the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, Lamarre also compares the Michigan French Canadians to the French Canadians who settled in New England during the same period. This book is a major contribution to the study of the French Canadian migration to the Midwest and will be valuable to researchers of both Michigan and French Canadian history.
#83
Michigan's Early Military Forces
A Roster and History of Troops Activated Prior to the American Civil War
2003
Michigan has long been proud of its military service, but many of its early accomplishments are unknown to most of the state's residents. This book fills the void in our knowledge by bringing together an impressive array of information on Michigan's armed forces from 1775 to 1860. Here we find the name rank, unit, and dates of service for all known Michigan men who served in the Revolutionary War, Indian Wars, War of 1812, Black Hawk War, Toledo War, Patriot War, and the Mexican-American War. Accompanying histories explain the reasons behind the conflicts and include maps showing all theaters of operations for Michigan troops. The in-depth accounts of the state's role in these hostilities often serve as the first serious and comprehensive studies of the contributions made by its citizens in these events. Ultimately, this book stands as a fitting memorial to the many men who took up arms on behalf of Michigan.
#85
For the Good of the Children
A History of the Boys and Girls Republic
2003
The Boys and Girls Republic of Farmington Hills, Michigan, came to life as the Boys Republic during the Progressive Era, when the combined stresses of urbanization, immigration, and poverty left an unprecedented number of children on the streets. It was a time marked both by social change and new thinking about the welfare of children, especially the neglected, delinquent, or abused. Here Gay Zieger tells the story of the remarkable humanitarians and reformers in the Detroit area who offered such children shelter, food, and comfort. Their efforts ultimately evolved into one of the most dramatic illustrations of a "junior republic"―an innovation directed not at enforcing discipline from above but rather at cultivating character among children through example and self-government.
We meet, for instance, the colorful first superintendent, Homer T. Lane, who believed in the innate goodness of children and established a self-governing system that allowed the boys in his care to exercise some power over their lives. While Lane dealt with issues concerning personal hygiene and honesty―and the book includes humorous accounts of how the boys arrived at "laws" addressing these matters―later issues included aggressive behavior, alienation, and drugs. Telling a story that spans the twentieth century, the author traces the social currents that gave rise to these problems, as well as the changing philosophies and psychological approaches aimed at resolving them. Her book pays tribute to the Republic, a residential treatment center for both boys and girls since 1994, by sharing the stories of individuals determined to help children discover their potential to succeed.
#86
Independent Man
The Life of Senator James Couzens
1958
Now back in print, this is the only book-length biography of a major Michigan figure who served as Detroit’s mayor and contributed to the early success of the Ford Motor Company.
#87
Bridging the River of Hatred
The Pioneering Efforts of Detroit Police Commissioner George Edwards
1998
Bridging the River of Hatred portrays the career of George Clifton Edwards, Jr., Detroit's visionary police commissioner whose efforts to bring racial equality, minority recruiting, and community policing to Detroit's police department in the early 1960s met with much controversy within the city's administration. At a crucial time when the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum and hostility between urban police forces and African Americans was close to eruption, Edwards chose solving racial and urban problems as his mission. Incorporating material from a manuscript that Edwards wrote before his death, supplemented by historical research, Stolberg provides a rare case study of problems in policing, the impoverishment of American cities, and the evolution of race relations during the turbulent 1960s. Edwards' vision and hope for Detroit gives depth to the national view of Detroit as a symbol of urban decline and offers lessons to be applied to current social and urban problems.
#88
The Iron Hunter
1919
A reprint of the autobiography of Michigan's controversial governor from the Upper Peninsula.Originally published in 1919, The Iron Hunter is the autobiography of one of Michigan's most influential and flamboyant historical figures: the reporter, publisher, explorer, politician, and twenty-seventh governor of Michigan, Chase Salmon Osborn (1860 — 1949). Making unprecedented use of the automobile in his statewide 1910 campaign, Osborn ran a memorable race that was followed by an even more remarkable term as governor. In two years he eliminated Michigan's deficit, ended corruption, and produced the state's first workmen's compensation law and a reform of the electoral process. His autobiography reflects the energy and enthusiasm of a reformer inspired by the Progressive Movement, but it also reveals the poetic spirit of an adventurer who fell in love with Michigan's Upper Peninsula after traveling the world.
A native of Indiana, Osborn moved from city to city throughout the northern Midwest, peeling potatoes and unloading ships, until he landed his first job as a newspaper reporter. An interest in iron ore, however, soon prompted him to explore the world for deposits, taking him as far as Lapland and Madagascar. Osborn ultimately settled in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he transformed the region's economy through the iron industry, while developing a passion for conserving the area's rugged natural beauty.
Osborn was a Republican with social, environmental, and international concerns; he campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt, supported Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations, and befriended FDR. Readers of his autobiography will be inspired and entertained by an individualist whoworked relentlessly to improve Michigan, and the world, as he saw fit.
#89
Windjammers
Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors
2002
White-winged schooners once dominated commerce and culture on the Great Lakes, and songs relieved the hours on board, but that way of life and its music ended when steam-driven mechanical boats swept schooners from the inland seas. Recognizing in the late 1930s, almost too late, that this rich oral tradition was going to the grave along with the last generation of schoonermen, Ivan H. Walton undertook a quest to save the songs of the Great Lakes sailors. Racing time and its ravages, he searched out ancient mariners in lakefront hospitals, hangouts, and watering holes. Walton reconstructed songs from one of the most colorful periods in American history, discovering melodies and lyrics to more than a hundred songs. With its stories, lyrics, musical scores by folksinger/historian Lee Murdock, and accompanying CD, Windjammers ensures that sailing chanteys that have not been heard for over one hundred years can be heard again and again far into the future.
#90
The Reuther Brothers
Walter, Roy, and Victor
2001
The tale of the Reuther brothers-Walter, Roy, and Victor-is more than a story of how one of America's great unions was created. It is also a powerful example of how teamwork, dedication, and concern for others can improve the lives of many people. This book portrays the brothers' lifelong commitment to each other and to workers' rights, while charting the career paths that ultimately led each one to his involvement with the United Automobile Workers (UAW).
In a clear, lively narration that explains many important concepts to young readers, this book describes a string of fascinating events, including Walter and Victor's trip to Nazi Germany, their days spent teaching in a Soviet factory, and the strikes they organized in the United States. Against the background of the Depression and the Civil Rights movement, The Reuther Brothers helps readers to understand the ongoing struggles for economic and social justice.
#91
History of the Finns in Michigan
2001
Michigan's Upper Peninsula was a major destination for Finns during the peak years of migration in the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. Several Upper Peninsula communities had large Finnish populations and Finnish churches, lodges, cooperative stores, and temperance societies. Ishpeming and Hancock, especially, were important nationally as Finnish cultural centers.
Originally published in Finnish in 1967 by Armas K. E. Holmio, History of the Finns in Michigan, translated into English by Ellen M. Ryynanen, brings the story of the contribution of Finnish immigrants into the mainstream of Michigan history. Holmio combines firsthand experience and personal contact with the first generation of Finnish immigrants with research in Finnish-language sources to create an important and compelling story of an immigrant group and its role in the development of Michigan.
#92
Diary of Bishop Frederick Baraga First Bishop of Marquette, Michigan
1990
It was 1831 when Father Frederic Baraga arrived in this country from his native Slovenia. He had come to bring Christianity to the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of the Old Northwest. Twenty years later, when Baraga first heard that he might be named Bishop of Upper Michigan, he began to keep a "daybook" or diary. Intended as a private document for his own use and reference, the diary contains a log of Baraga's missionary journeys, his observations about daily weather conditions, ship movement on the lakes, and a running account of the various works he accomplished. Between the lines of the usually concise entries, however, there are clues to Baraga's zeal, dedication, and generosity.
An introductory biography of Baraga, lengthy passages from his letters, vignettes about persons in the text and a comprehensive bibliography yield an in-depth portrait of mid-nineteenth century life, especially in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
#93
This Is Detroit, 1701-2001
An Illustrated History
2001
Arthur M. Woodford takes readers back to the days of Cadillac's settlement and leads them through Detroit's transition from French village to British fort to American town. As the city's history unfolds, he describes the issues facing its inhabitants in d
#95
Schooner Passage
Sailing Ships and the Lake Michigan Frontier
2000
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, schooner trade was a well-developed system of maritime transport for commodities such as grain, lumber, and iron. The schooner trade was as critical to the development of the Great Lakes region as covered wagons were to the Far West and paddle wheel steamers were to the South.
Schooners sailed the Great Lakes in large
numbers and played a formative role in the
shaping of pioneer life throughout the region. The schooners that traveled the Lake Michigan basin succeeded in bringing a range of shoreline communities and four separate states into one coherent region. Although schooners successfully competed with steam vessels for more than a half-century, wooden sailing ships could not match the scale of the giant steel bulk carriers that began to emerge from shipyards in the twentieth century. The Mary A. Gregory―one of the last schooners left―was torched, sunk, and buried in Lake
Michigan in 1926. Schooner Passage is a
history of these magnificent sailing vessels
and their role in maritime trade along Lake
Michigan.
Theodore J. Karamanski shares with the reader the stories of the men and women who sailed on the schooners, their labor issues and strikes, the role of the schooner in the maritime economy along the Lake Michigan basin, and the factors that led to the eventual demise of that economy in the early twentieth century. Karamanski has put together historical accounts from newspaper clippings, historical society archives, and government documents to provide one of the few available histories of schooners.
Schooner Passage will interest scholars and students of Great Lakes and American history as well as the general reader interested in nineteenth-century western expansion.
#97
Looking Beyond Race
The Life of Otis Milton Smith
2000
In Looking Beyond Race, Otis Milton Smith (1922-94) recounts his life as an African American who overcame poverty and prejudice to become a successful politician, going on to become the first black vice president and general counsel of General Motors.
Born in the slums of Memphis, Tennessee, Smith was the illegitimate son of a black domestic worker and her prominent white employer. Although he identified with his mother's blackness, he inherited his father's white complexion. This left him open to racism from whites, who resented his African American heritage, and blacks, who resented his skin color.
Throughout his life, Smith worked with and met many prominent Americans. He knew boxer Joe Louis, future general Daniel "Chappie" James, future Detroit mayor Coleman Young, and the nation's first African American general, B. O. Davis Jr. Through politics he knew Michigan's prominent politicians and was appointed by Governor John Swainson to the Michigan Supreme Court, making him the first black man since Reconstruction to sit on any supreme court in the nation. Smith also knew nationally known figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Estes Kevfauver, and presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Through his civil rights work, he met A. P. Tureaud, Roy Wilkins, and Benjamin Hooks, and he worked closely with Vernon Jordan.
Looking Beyond Race provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of America's largest corporation. Smith was an early advocate of the increased cooperation between business and government that was so necessary for business negotiating the complexities of a global economy. In 1983 he retired as general counsel for the corporation, having been the company's first black officer.
This memoir, which Smith dictated during the three years before his death in 1994, is a compelling tale that ends with the inspirational story of Smith's reconciliation with his white relatives who still live in the South. In this highly readable memoir, Looking Beyond Race provides a moving tale that will appeal to readers interested in African American history, politics, labor relations, business, and Michigan history.
#98
The Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region
2000
From 1870 to 1910 the prosperity of the copper and iron mining, lumbering, and shipping industries of the Lake Superior region created a demand for more substantial buildings. In satisfying this demand, architects, builders, and clients preferred local red sandstone. They found this stone beautiful, colorful, carvable, durable, and fireproof. Because it was extracted easily in large blocks and shipped cheaply by water, it was economical. The red sandstone city halls, county courthouses, churches, schools, libraries, banks, commercial blocks, and houses gave the Lake Superior region a distinct identity. Kathryn Bishop Eckert studies this region as a built environment and examines the efforts of architects and builders to use local red sandstone. Eckert stresses the importance of the building materials as she explores the architectural history of a region whose builders wanted to reflect the local landscape.
#102
Tin Stackers
The History of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company
1999
Formed in 1901 by U.S. Steel Corporation, the Pittsburgh Steamship Company became the largest commercial fleet in the world and assumed a dominant role in Great Lakes shipping and the American steel industry. Tin Stackers tells its the ships, the men who sailed them, and the conditions that shaped their times. Drawing on company records and interviews with officials and sailors, Miller tells how the fleet kept organized labor off Great Lakes ships while leading the way in efficient operation, technological advancement, and employee safety. He emphasizes the human element in the company's history by relating the personal challenges faced by crews, and includes many archival photographs. Now navigating the waters of the lakes as the USS Great Lakes Fleet, Inc., these ships continue to play a part in commerce. Tin Stackers preserves their role in industrial history.
#103
Huron
The Seasons of a Great Lake (Great Lakes Books
1999
A personal exploration of the natural history, use and management of Lake Huron.
#104
A Sailor's Logbook
A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters
1999
In this firsthand account of life aboard the ships of the Great Lakes, Mark Thompson weaves together the threads of a story that relives a centuries-old tradition. Thompson began his logbook after he reported for duty aboard the Calcite II at Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, for the 1996 shipping season. A Sailor's Logbook is the first such book to chronicle a sailor's life at the end of the twentieth century. Not just a detailing of weather, cargo, and crew relations, A Sailor's Logbook is also an account of the daily lives of a diverse group of crewmembers as they share their sailing knowledge, "sea stories," and the many memories that accompany the pictures. Although there are ample resources in museums, archival collections, and company files regarding statistical logbook information, A Sailor's Logbook details the intricacies of daily life on a Great Lakes freighter. Thompson navigates the reader through the waters of the Great Lakes and his own life in this very special narrative.
#105
Wonderful Power
The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin
1999
Native Americans in the Lake Superior basin mined copper and traded it beyond the area. They directed white settlers to copper lodes and explained the mineral's significance and "wonderful power." This work examines the archaeological record to relate the story of this prehistoric industry.
#107
The Long Winter Ends
1998
A reprint of the 1941 novel by Newton G. Thomas, The Long Winter Ends tells the story of a year in the life of a young emigrant miner who leaves Cornwall in the southwest of England to work in the copper mines of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Through Jim's story, The Long Winter Ends offers a glimpse into the lives of an often neglected emigrant group that played an important role in the development of the Great Lake and American mining industries since the 1840s. Drawing on his own experiences as a young Cornish immigrant in the mining communities of the Upper Peninsula, Thomas incorporated firsthand knowledge of the work routines and vocabulary of underground mining into this novel. With an introduction providing information about the cultural history of the Cornish, this narrative traces the Cornish emigrant experience from the failure of the mines in Cornwall, their hopes to preserve Cornish traditions in America, and then finally the acceptance of a future in America.
#108
Beyond the Model T
The Other Ventures of Henry Ford
1990
09.24.18
#109
In the Wilderness with the Red Indians
German Missionary to the Michigan Indians, 1847-1853
1888
First published in Germany in 1889, E. R. Baierlein's sensitive and respectful portrayal of Native American life is available for the first time in English. In the Wilderness with the Red Indians is a moving historical account of a Lutheran missionary's life with American Indians in central lower Michigan more than a century ago. The book tells of Baierlein 's time in Bethany, Michigan, where he was sent to help establish a church, build homes, and educate both the children of Native Americans and of German Lutherans who had migrated to North America. He and his wife lived as the only whites in an Indian settlement and became loved and trusted members of the tribe. With the assistance of Chief Bemassikeh, a visionary who saw the Indians' way of life was doomed, Baierlein imparted his knowledge to a people eager to learn. His story will be treasured by all readers interested in Michigan history.
#110
Elmwood Endures
History of a Detroit Cemetery
1996
Elmwood Cemetery is one of the oldest places of burial in Detroit. Less than two miles from downtown, the cemetery's archaic stone monuments are a treasure of artistic carvings, characteristic of the rural cemetery movement. Elmwood's tranquil setting inspires contemplation of nature, life, and death.
Elmwood Endures provides a visual journey of the cemetery's history and landscape. The guidebook features nearly one hundred photographs, along with brief biographies of notable occupants who make up a virtual who's who in Detroit history. Many of those buried―governers, explorers, doctors, mayors, inventors, senators, civil rights leaders, distillers and brewmasters, and civil war generals―helped found and shape the city.
A celebration of an important Detroit landmark, Elmwood Endures reveals Detroit's rich and interesting history.
#111
Master of Precision
Henry M. Leland
1996
Henry Martyn Leland (1843-1932) is one of the most outstanding figures in automotive history. Best known for developing the Cadillac and the Lincoln, Leland was among the pioneers who set Detroit on its course as the automobile capital of the world.
Master of Precision is the fascinating firsthand account of Leland's life and work during the early days of the automobile industry. Trained in New England factories known for their precision manufacturing, Henry Leland was an expert machinist before he began to reshape automobile production. Affectionately called "Uncle Henry" and the "Grand Old Man of Detroit," he was a demanding but highly-respected employer who set new standards of precision, quality, and performance.
First published in 1966 by Wayne State University Press, Master of Precision was re-released in 1996 in celebration of the centennial of automobile manufacturing in North America.
#113
The Northern Lights
Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes
1994
Symbols of safety, reassurance, and guidance, lighthouses hold a special fascination for many people. On the Great Lakes, lighthouses―"northern lights"―helped to open the region to settlement and support the growth of commercial trade. Charles K. Hyde describes the histories of more than 160 individual lighthouses that still exist on Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior and the straits of Mackinac. As the shipping industry flourished, so too did the necessity for lighthouses. With their proliferation came a demand for more sophisticated structures. Hyde describes the changing design of lighthouses and the equipment that produces their beacons. Featuring over two hundred color photographs, The Northern Lights captures the beauty, history, and significance of lighthouses on the Great Lakes and illuminates the rich maritime history of the region.
#116
Ojibwa Narratives of Charles and Charlotte Kawbawgam and Jacques Lepique, 1893-1895
1994
These 52 narratives feature the tales of three 19th-century Ojibwa storytellers - Charles and Charlotte Kawbawgam and Jacques LePique. Collected by Homer H. Kidder, the stories present a fresh view of an early period of Ojibwa thought and the way of life in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
#117
Iron Fleet
The Great Lakes in World War Ii
1994
Iron Fleet focuses on the vital role played by the Great Lakes shipping industry during World War II. George J. Joachim examines how the industry met the unprecedented demand for the shipment of raw materials to meet production quotas during the war, when failure to do so would have had disastrous consequences for the nation's defense effort. Steel production was crucial to the American war effort, and the bulk shippers of the lakes supplied virtually all of the iron ore necessary to produce the steel. The war material forged in the "arsenal of democracy" equipped not only fifteen million Americans mustered into the armed forces, but the forces of the nation's allies as well.
Based mainly on original research from primary sources, Iron Fleet also explores the use of Great Lakes shipyards for the production of salt water civilian and military vessels, the role of the Great Lakes passenger ships in providing vacation opportunities for war workers, and the extensive measures taken to to safeguard the Soo Locks and other potential targets from sabotage.
#119
Cobb Would Have Caught It
The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit
1991
The period from 1920 through the early post-World War II years remains the greatest in the long history of the Detroit Tigers Baseball Club. Between 1920 and 1950 the club won four pennants and two World Series, placed second seven times, and regularly fielded exciting, competitive teams.
Richard Bak spent ten years recording the life stories of nearly two dozen Tigers players from Detroit's "golden age." There was no pattern to how life had treated them since their playing days―some had stayed in the game as broadcasters or scouts; others had slipped into quiet anonymity as milkmen or machine repairmen. Bak retains the flavor of each man's speech and the integrity of his character. Players' interviews are prefaced with a short history of the parallel paths the city and professional baseball took from the end of World War I through the early 1950s.
#120
The Making of a Mining District
Keweenaw Native Copper 1500-1870
1992
The Keweenaw Peninsula of northern Michigan is the only place on earth where large amounts of copper are found in the pure metallic "native" state. The Making of a Mining District is the first book to fully document how the value of these unique deposits came to be recognized, from the time Europeans first became aware of the native copper shortly after 1500 to the establishment of the region as one of the great copper mining districts of the world.
Krause focuses on the period from 1820 to 1865, when the district's true mining potential became clearer to many and when American science changed from a pleasant amateur diversion into a more rigorous professional discipline, a change clearly reflected in attitudes toward this unique region.
#122
Copper Country Journal
The Diary of Schoolmaster Henry Hobart, 1863-1864
1991
Book by Hobart, Henry
#123
Life on the Great Lakes
A Wheelsman's Story
1991
Fred Dutton's story tells of the time before the gyro when ships were steered by magnetic compass and men had to estimate the degree of error in navigational calculations. Dutton recounts the terror of ships meeting and passing in the fog and the subtleties of handling ships at the docks. Serving under many captains on a dozen and a half vessels, he spices his account with profiles of ships' officers and crew and with details of deckhand work.
Life on the Great Lakes provides a concentration of information that otherwise would need to be assembled in fragments from a hundred sources. Historians, folklore buffs, and ship lovers will discover details of vessel operation usually available only in the dialogue of a passing generation of very elderly sailors.
#126
The Legacy of Albert Kahn
1987
The Legacy of Albert Kahn salutes the achievements of one of America's most distinguished architects. Originally the catalog for a major retrospective exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, this volume has become an invaluable handbook in tracing the creative genius of Albert Kahn.
Known principally for his development of modern industrial architecture, Kahn also made significant contributions in the areas of commercial, civic, institutional, and domestic architecture. Dividing the early and late works, each chapter is a chronological presentation of designs within a given architectural category. Black-and-white photographs and illustrations abound.
Eclectic and visionary, the man whose legacy included the General Motors and Fisher Buildings, the Rouge Plant, and a considerable number of buildings on the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus continues to be a source of inspiration for a new generation of architects.
#130
Danny and the Boys
Being Some Legends of Hungry Hollow
1987
Reaffirming the wonder and glory of individual rights, Robert Traver's Hungry Hollow tales recount the mischievous escapades of Danny and his "boys." Setting themselves up in a logging shack near the iron-mining town of Chippewa in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Danny and his cronies spend their time fishing and hunting, story-telling, moonshining, and rampaging through the Chippewa saloons and the local "hotel."
Traver has caught the genuine flavor of backwoods life. Beyond the diverse schemes and pranks, he masterfully portrays a group of men who live as they do because they choose to. Although written as fiction, Danny and the Boys is true Americana.
#135
Freshwater Fury
Yarns and Reminiscences of the Greatest Storm in Inland Navigation
1986
Up and down the Great Lakes, wherever captains and seamen met, one of the chief topics of conversation is still the Great Storm―the worst disaster in Great Lakes history. By men of the Lakes, November 9, 1913 will always be remembered as Black Sunday, for it brought death to hundreds of their companions and destruction to scores of ships of the Lakes fleet. Each man who survived the Storm has a fascinating story to tell.
Freshwater Fury is the first comprehensive history of the Great Storm. Author Frank Barcus, who has met and talked with many survivors during his trips on Lakes freighters over the past twenty years, presents here their vivid eye-witness accounts. The many drawings, maps, and diagrams executed by the author add pictorial interest to the story of this dramatic struggle between men and the elements.
#136
Call It North Country
The Story of Upper Michigan
1986
John Bartlow Martin, a freelance writer who had spent long weeks in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, was struck with the idea of a book on Michigan's Upper Peninsula when he was there on his wedding trip. Returning each summer to the area, Martin discovered the region's diverse history, full of colorful and interesting personalities and events. The territory has been wilderness, a haunt of the Chippewas and the Hurons, copper country, iron country, lumber country, and lastly, a vacation land.
Filled with stories of adventure and daring, Call It North Country recounts the lives of miners, hunters, trappers, and lumberjacks― the hardy breeds who first populated the harsh land of the Upper Peninsula.
#137
Michigan Place Names
The History of the Founding and the Naming of More than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities
1986
From Aabec in Antrim County to Zutphen in Ottawa County, from Hell to Hooker, Michigan Place Names is a compendium of information on the origins of the state's geographical names. With alphabetically arranged thumb-nail sketches, Walter Romig introduces readers to a host of colorful personalities and episodes which have achieved notoriety, though sometimes shortlived, by devising or lending their names to the state's settlements.
Romig spent more than ten years researching and documenting the entries to which he added an extensive bibliography of sources and an index of the personal names used in the text. For the curious, the librarian, the genealogist, or the historian, his book is an indispensable resource. Michigan Place Names is another "Michigan classic" reissued as a Great Lakes Book.
#138
Young Henry Ford
A Picture History of the First Forty Years
1963
This is a story in pictures of the first forty years of an American farm boy who became one of the greatest manufacturers of modern times, and who was, also, a profound radical all his life. In this book you will see what his beginnings and the beginnings of the Ford car were like and some flashes of what his times were like. 229 black and white pictures.
Authors
Philip P. Mason
Author · 2 books
Philip P. Mason is Distinguished Professor of History at Wayne State University. Mason is the recipient of the 2009 Historical Society of Michigan Lifetime Achievement Award.
John D. Haeger
Author · 1 books
John Denis Haeger is a professor of history, assistant vice president for research, and dean in the School of Graduate Studies at Central Michigan University. He is a founder and former editor of Michigan Historical Review and the author of The Investment Frontier: New York Businessmen and the Economic Development of the Northwest. Haeger earned his Ph.D. from Loyola University in Chicago.
Ellen F. Steinberg
Author · 1 books
Ellen F. Steinberg is an anthropological researcher and writer who was born and raised in Chicago. She is the author of two multidisciplinary works, Teach Me: An Ethnography of Adolescent Learning and Irma: A Chicago Woman’s Story, 1871–1966. She teaches as a visiting professor at local colleges, is a past president of Yonah Hadassah, and is vice president and Chicago-area chair of the Society of Woman Geographers.
Richard Bak
Author · 10 books
RICHARD BAK is a Detroit-based journalist and the author of twenty-five books, including 'Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire' and 'Peach: Ty Cobb in His Time and Ours.' He has received three ForeWord magazine Book-of-the-Year awards, the Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Prize for Literature, and two Emmys for his work as writer and coproducer of "Stranded at the Corner," a feature-length documentary about the fight to save Detroit's Tiger Stadium.
Robert Traver
Author · 7 books
Robert Traver is the pseudonym of John Donaldson Voelker who served as the Prosecuting Attorney of Marquette County, Michigan and later as the 74th Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He wrote many books reflecting his two passions, the law and flyfishing, Troubleshooters, Danny and the Boys and Small Town D.A.
J. Alan Holman
Author · 1 books
Dr. J. Alan Holman was an American paleontologist, herpetologist, and Curator Emeritus of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Michigan State University Museum and Emeritus Professor of Geology and Zoology at Michigan State University. Holman authored twelve books, including two monographs (Pleistocene Amphibians; Reptiles in North America; Pleistocene Amphibians; Reptiles in Britain and Europe) and field guides, such as: Michigan Snakes, Michigan Turtles, Lizards, Michigan Frogs, Toads and Salamanders. The book, The Michigan Roadside Naturalist, was co-authored with, Dr. Margaret B. "Peg" Holman, his wife. His accomplishment include, Honorary Lifetime membership in the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Alan...
John Cohassey
Author · 1 books
John F. Cohassey is a freelance writer.
Gerald Wykes
Author · 1 books
Gerald Wykes is a retired museum and nature center director and freelance author, illustrator, and presenter. His 2014 Michigan History Magazine article "A Weed Goes to War" was honored as the "Best Article of the Year" by the Michigan Historical Society. He also occasionally steps out from behind the computer and drawing board as the French Canadian storyteller and voyageur Alexander Boyer.
R. Alan Douglas
Author · 1 books
R. Alan Douglas is founding curator of the Hiram Walker Historical Museum, now known as Windsor’s Community Museum. He is editor of John Prince 1796-1870, A Collection of Documents.
John Bartlow Martin
Author · 3 books
John Bartlow Martin was an American journalist, diplomat and author. The American Ambassador to the Dominican Republic from 1962 until 1964, he was a speechwriter and confidant to many American Democratic politicians including Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey.
Kevin M. Ball
Author · 1 books
Kevin Ball received both his law degree and his Ph.D. from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. A longtime bankruptcy attorney before embarking on a career in higher education, he is currently the director of paralegal and business programs at Baker College.
Sidney Fine
Author · 2 books
A historian of modern America, Sidney Fine taught at the University of Michigan. He earned his B.A. from Western Reserve University in 1942 and his M.A. (1944) and Ph.D. (1948) in history from the University of Michigan. His areas of interest included history of the American labor movement, the New Deal, and the history of Michigan and its political environment.
J.C. Long
Author · 1 books
There is more than one J.C. Long in the Goodreads catalog. This entry is for J.C. [7^] Long
Frederic Baraga
Author · 1 books
Frederic Baraga (1797-1868)
Mark L. Thompson
Author · 4 books
Mark L. Thompson is a freelance writer and merchant seaman living Alpena, Michigan. His lifelong love affair with the Great Lakes shipping industry has included stints as a crew member aboard the big boats and as a maritime academy administrator. Thompson is the author of the popular Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes and A Sailor’s Logbook: A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters.
David Roberts
Author · 1 books
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. Various
Joe Grimm
Author · 4 books
Grimm, a lifelong Detroit area resident, is a journalism professor at Michigan State University. With his students or by himself, he has published more than 20 books. (source: Amazon)
Jean Alicia Elster
Author · 3 books
A 2017 Kresge Artist Fellow in Literary Arts and a former attorney, Jean Alicia Elster (BA, University of Michigan; JD, University of Detroit School of Law) is most recently the author of the young adult novel How It Happens (Wayne State University Press, September 2021). How It Happens was honored as a 2021 Foreword INDIES Silver Winner for Young Adult Fiction and as a 2022 Midwest Book Award Silver Winner in Young Adult Fiction. It was also awarded the 2022 Bronze Medal in Young Adult Fiction by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. It was selected as a 2023 Black History Month Community Read by the Sterling Heights (Michigan) Public Library. Elster is the author of the novel The Colored Car—for ages 8 and older—published by Wayne State University Press and released in September 2013. The Colored Car was selected as a 2014 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. It was awarded the 2014 Midwest Book Award in Children’s Fiction and was chosen as an Honor Book for the 2014 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. Elster is also the author of the novel Who’s Jim Hines?—for ages 8 and older—published by Wayne State University Press and released in August 2008. Among other honors, Who’s Jim Hines? was selected as one of the Library of Michigan’s 2009 Michigan Notable Books. In addition, Elster is the author of the children’s book series “Joe Joe in the City,” published by Judson Press. The first volume in that series, Just Call Me Joe Joe, was released in October 2001. The remaining volumes are: I Have A Dream, Too! (May, 2002), I’ll Fly My Own Plane (September, 2002), and I’ll Do the Right Thing (January, 2003). She was awarded the 2002 Governors’ Emerging Artist Award by ArtServe Michigan in recognition of the series. I’ll Do the Right Thing was awarded the 2004 Atlanta Daily World “Atlanta Choice Award” for children’s books. Elster was honored with a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts, a program of The Kresge Foundation. In addition, Elster’s essays have appeared in national publications including Ms., World Vision, Black Child, and Christian Science Sentinel magazines. Her short story “Alphabet Day” was published in the First Annual Metro Times-Detroit Fiction Issue. She has been awarded three residencies at the internationally acclaimed Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, Illinois). She was the featured author for the Black Her Stories podcast, season one, episode five. Elster was selected to be a member of the 2020-2022 Live Coal Gallery/Knight Foundation collaborative. She is frequently invited to speak at schools, libraries, and conferences throughout the state of Michigan and across the United States. Engagements include the following representative events: In 2023, Elster was the keynote speaker when How It Happens was selected as the Black History Month Community Read at the Sterling Heights (Michigan) Public Library. She was a panelist for “Black Trauma, Black Joy – Telling Hard Stories to Young Readers” at the Association of Writers and Writing Professionals (AWP) Conference, Seattle, Washington. She was a presenter for “Oral Histories and the Creation of Historical Fiction for Young Readers” at the Michigan Reading Association 67th Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Elster In 2022, Elster was a guest presenter for two programs at the Detroit Historical Museum. She was the keynote speaker for the Warren Consolidated Schools Writing Celebration (Michigan). She was also a guest speaker for the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Library’s Youth Author Series. In 2021, Elster was a guest author at the Get Inked Teen Writing Conference at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. She was a guest presenter for the Room Project’s Women in Prose from Wayne State University Press event and was a panelist for the Wayne State University Press Publishing Symposium. She was a featured author for the Jackson County (Michigan) Intermediate School District’s Jackson Reads! literacy program.
Theodore J. Karamanski
Author · 2 books
Theodore J. Karamanski is a professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, where he founded and directs the Public History Program. He is the author of seven books, including Rally ’Round the Flag: Chicago and the Civil War, Schooner Passage: Sailing Ships and the Lake Michigan Frontier, and most recently Blackbird’s Song: Andrew J. Blackbird and the Odawa People.
Arthur M. Woodford
Author · 2 books
Arthur M. Woodford is the son of Frank Woodford and is author or editor of nine books, including This Is Detroit: 1701–2001 (Wayne State University Press, 2001) and Charting the Inland Seas (Wayne State University Press, 1994). He is the former director of the St. Clair Shores Public Library.
Chase Salmon Osborn
Author · 1 books
American politician, newspaper reporter and publisher, and explorer who served as 27th Governor of Michigan from 1911 to 1913. Chase published newspapers in Florence, Wisconsin and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. In 1889 he was appointed postmaster and in 1898 Commissioner of Railroads. In 1900, he was unsuccessful to win the Republican nomination for Governor of Michigan, losing to Aaron T. Bliss, who won the general election. In 1908, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Michigan to nominate William Howard Taft for U.S. President. In 1910, Osborn was elected the 27th Governor of Michigan and served from 1911 to 1913. His tenure as governor was focused on reforms as the state deficit was eliminated; a workmen's compensation bill was sanctioned; and a presidential primary law was authorized. After his term as governor, Osborn traveled the world and came back for another attempt to become governor again and unseat his successor, Democrat Woodbridge Nathan Ferris, but was unsuccessful.
Michael W. Nagle
Author · 1 books
Michael W. Nagle is a professor of history and political science at West Shore Community College in Scottville, Michigan. He is the author of LecturePoint, a series of web-based interactive lectures covering topics in U.S. history.
Mark Hoffman
Author · 1 books
Mark Hoffman is a lifelong student of the Civil War. He previously wrote the award-winning My Brave Mechanics: The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War (Wayne State University Press, 2007).
Sunnie Wilson
Author · 1 books
William Nathaniel "Sunnie" Wilson (1908–1999) was active in the Detroit community as president of the Twentieth Century Association, a political candidacy promotions and public relations organization, and was president of the social Detroit Idlewilders Club. He distinguished himself among the city's entertainment, political, and business communities for over six decades.
Marijean Levering
Author · 1 books
Marijean Levering was associate professor of theater at Utica College.
Mike Smith
Author · 3 books
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Paul Taylor
Author · 2 books
Paul Taylor is an insurance professional and award-winning author of five books pertaining to the American Civil War, including Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer.
