The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton Studies in American Politics) | 
| Author: Thomas J. Sugrue
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 50080
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0691121869
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.800977434
EAN: 9780691121864
ASIN: 0691121869
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
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Product Description
Once America's "arsenal of democracy," Detroit over the last fifty years has become the symbol of the American urban crisis. In this reappraisal of racial and economic inequality in modern America, Thomas Sugrue explains how Detroit and many other once prosperous industrial cities have become the sites of persistent racialized poverty. He challenges the conventional wisdom that urban decline is the product of the social programs and racial fissures of the 1960s. Probing beneath the veneer of 1950s prosperity and social consensus, Sugrue traces the rise of a new ghetto, solidified by changes in the urban economy and labor market and by racial and class segregation. In this provocative revision of postwar American history, Sugrue finds cities already fiercely divided by race and devastated by the exodus of industries. He focuses on urban neighborhoods, where white working-class homeowners mobilized to prevent integration as blacks tried to move out of the crumbling and overcrowded inner city. Weaving together the history of workplaces, unions, civil rights groups, political organizations, and real estate agencies, Sugrue finds the roots of today's urban poverty in a hidden history of racial violence, discrimination, and deindustrialization that reshaped the American urban landscape after World War II. In a new preface, Sugrue discusses the ongoing legacies of the postwar transformation of urban America and engages recent scholars who have joined in the reassessment of postwar urban, political, social, and African American history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Amazing read on historical origins of deindustrialization & the politics of suburbanizaiton April 29, 2008
fantastic book that argues capitalism generates economic inequalities and African Americans have disproportionately experienced the impact of these inequalities. falls within other books that explore the rise of the new right, but this book is unique in its focus on suburbanization and race.
re-periodizes work on deindustrialization, arguing that seeds of the urban crisis were sown in the 40s and 50s- out of the contradictions of New Deal liberalism. this book shows how the racialized new deal effectively excluded african americans- but the language of rights inherent in the new deal was used by african americans to makes claims to rights. however, at the same time whites were using the same language to make claims on property rights, which redrew racial lines.
on of the key- yet somewhat unexplored points is the impact of antiradicalism and anticommunism on postwar America- generating feelings of conformity and setting limits on acceptable bounds of debate.
An incredibly important book about racial tensions in the North February 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Thomas Sugrue, in his classic work The Origins of the Urban Crisis, has given us a case study of a Northern City that has fallen from grace: Detroit, Michigan. Sugrue promotes the theory that the decay of urban America can be explained by reviewing the situation in Detroit.
Prior to and during World War II, Detroit was a hopping metropolis - one of many jobs and a mecca for blacks migrating from the South in search of work and a better life. Economics drove this city's growth in industry and population. Unfortunately for the city, however, there was only one industry in town - the auto industry, and such critical events as automation of the plants and the movement of the plants out of center city Detroit led to the economic collapse.
Sugrue spends much of the book focused, rightfully so, on the plight of housing in Detroit - with the great influx of migrants, housing was at a premium, and because of racism, many of the migrants were restricted only to certain areas of the city, which then turned into overcrowded residential zones, thus perpetuating a crisis of where to house all of these people.
This book is a fascinating work studying an urban area that has indeed come crashing down; one of the most important facets of the book is that it forces Northerners to face something that they may not be interested in hearing; that racism was very active in post-war Detroit, and often it was even more prevalent than in the South.
 Racism in America Doesn't Come Out of Nowhere February 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Thomas Sugrue's book The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit aims to take a closer look at the cause and effects of racism and poverty specifically within the context of Detroit. Sugrue's main argument was to debunk previous scholarship that rooted the cause of racial turmoil and poverty within Detroit and other large metropolitan cities in the United States as "excesses of the 1960's liberalism, black power, and identity politics" which unraveled the New Deal gains. (p. xix) Sugrue instead turned the tables of the cause of racial turmoil and poverty from liberalism and the black people to resting the blame on the other side of racism from government policies, white activism against racial equality, and politics. Surgue even blames the New Deal itself for being part of the catalyst for racial inequality and poverty among blacks in Detroit because it promoted among the white population a sense of empowerment and entitled rights that they felt they were owed as citizens and had the right to defend. Sugrue uses sources from the U.S. Government, local politics, Unions, civil rights activists, homeowner associations and real estate brokers to prove the point that it was a concerted effort on all fronts long before the 1960's that kept blacks in isolation in which they lacked opportunities to better themselves that has only become worse over time and continues to the present.
Sugrue certainly uses the sources effectively to illustrate how all white forces were purposefully trying to keep black people in their supposed place. Unfortunately there is not a counterbalance or another side of the story. The book is written with the tone, that for the most part, all white people were evil racists except for a handful of enlightened activists that belong to civil rights movements from the 40's onward. As a Caucasian reader it is getting very old to feel as though all scholars portray white people as the root of all evil and racism and that every single white person besides a handful of activists against racism played a part in keeping the "black people down". It is truly offensive to have scholars imply all white people whether they admit it or not deep down have racist tendencies. One counterbalance to make the portrayal of racism and poverty more even would be to juxtapose the black poverty experience with the white poverty experience and look where the experiences are different or the same. This book implies that all white people were at least somewhat better off than all black people. Sugrue references poor blacks, lower middle class blue collar blacks, middle class blacks, well to do blacks, lower middle class blue collar whites, middle class whites, and well to do whites, but never mentions the experience of poor white people. Does Sugrue feel that there is not such a thing as poor white people? Did he ever investigate any records or oral histories from white people who were not activists, but just part of a regular white community, that did not feel that blacks should be kept in their place? Usually people that don't feel the same about a particular issue who are in a larger group who feel strongly about an issue are too afraid to raise their voice of discontent because they feel that they will suffer ostracizing from the group they are in. Sugrue never mentioned community pressure within white groups to keep white people that thought racism was wrong in their place. Certainly without a doubt black people in general have had a far more difficult experience in this country than white people. Furthermore, it seems rather obvious to a person who doesn't know in detail the previous scholarship Sugrue was referring to in which all of today's current inner-city problems stemmed from the 1960's is false and that it has far older roots. Racism and group class does not drop out of the sky at one particular moment. All situations have long history of circumstances that leads to the current state of affairs and on that point the book does a good job of revealing the history which led to the present day situation of Detroit's inner-city as well as other cities in the Untied States. Unfortunately, counterbalance even in small amounts was lacking.
Excellent history of urban decline July 17, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
Thomas J. Sugrue attempts to prove that resistance to the civil rights movement had much deeper roots than the white backlash of the 1960s and 1970s. The author contends that resistance to the civil rights actually emerged as opposition to the New Deal coalition. Urban, anti-liberal, northern whites, as well as corporate leaders, unionists and politicians limited the possibilities of reform. Sugure maintains that northern urban white workers initially were the "backbone" of the New Deal coalition. And they found a common cause as the New Deal unified varied constituents in America. Yet, Sugure argues that underneath the seeming unity of the new coalition, were unresolved questions of racial identities. These unresolved issues began to fester, and were then exacerbated by liberal policies, specifically, public housing. And it is here that Sugure places the ''white rebellion" against the New Deal and liberalism, in the urban north.
From the 1940s until the 1960s, Detroit's racial geography changed dramatically. Sugure refers to Detroit as a "magnet' for African Americans after World War II, due to the lure of the defense and
automobile industries. When increasing numbers of African Americans began to search for housing in the predominantly white sections of the Detroit, racial tensions began to increase. Post World War II was described at "dark ages of Detroit." Riots and white flight occurred, coupled with a decline in the Detroit's post war economy. As layoffs mounted, and a national housing shortage, white homeowners feared foreclosure on their homes, as the economic ability to own home became increasingly precarious.
Sugure claims that race and housing became inseparable in the minds of white Detroiters. Basically, he contends that white homeowners feared that the influx of blacks would ruin their fragile economic security. Familiar racial fears and myths emerged; blacks were associated with crime and vice. White Detroiters even cited Jim Crow as a model for "successful race relations." In response to the "black invasion" and their increased economic stability, working class whites began to form neighborhood associations. Essentially, these associations were political organizations aimed at stymieing black constituents from moving into white neighborhoods. Sugure contends that these associations espoused the notions of values, protection, achievement and tradition, and were aimed at paternalistically protecting the neighborhood from vice-ridden blacks. They also served to foster a sense of "whiteness" among members (silent majority etc). These organizations corresponded with public officials and real estate agents (who played to both black and whites) to block African Americans from certain neighborhoods in various ways, including violence and intimidation.
By examining this, I believe the author uncovered a very prominent theme in American history and politics. What should be the level of government assistance in a capitalistic society? In this specific case, should the government have supplied urban housing for its poorer constituents, or should it have upheld the rights of privacy and association of its more affluent constituents? The affluent white constituents criticized the government when it tried to "force people" (blacks) down their throats," they cried for their freedoms of privacy and association, yet they called on that same "tyrannical" government to aid them in blocking the settlement of African Americans in their neighborhoods. Sugrue hits on this contradiction but does not pursue it. Which constituents should the government help and when should it help them? When is the government infringing on the rights on its citizens, and when is it fighting to uphold their rights? A fine line is drawn and illustrated by the struggle in post war Detroit.
I think the author is extremely misleading when he discusses the "black invasion" of Detroit. He presents blacks as a stifling, crime-ridden, vice infested monolith. I understand the aim of the article was to examine the position of the urban white class, but nonetheless, the quotes the author uses to describe migrating blacks is extremely derogatory, and in some cases, the author makes the white backlash almost seem justified. The black race is not a monolithic entity, no race is. I believe Sugrue should have at least written a few sentences dispelling the notion of the "black invasion" as a monolithic entity.
In summation, Sugure challenges the historian to probe deeper when trying to locate the backlash to the civil rights movement and liberalism. Instead of just viewing it narrowly as southern whites, Sugure contends that resistance developed among a very unlikely group, a group which initially formed the "backbone" of the New Deal coalition. Yet, as the housing shortage pressed, old racial tensions flared up and urban, working class whites banned together to resist liberalism and the "black invasion" in the 1940s and 1950s, a generation prior to the civil rights movement.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, civil rights history.
 Bad thesis but a story that still needs to be looked at December 16, 2006
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
Sugrue takes a look at one of the crisis to hit not only Detroit but the rest of the country in his book on race and inequality. While there have been a lot of disturbing factors that have occurred during urban renewal Sugrue takes his text a little far. His flagrant bashing of urban planning gets old after the first two chapters and the book tends to drag on. This is an important issue that bears further studying but hopefully it will be done in a more academic way. This book does have all the information you need to start studying the subject and is a good way to begin looking at urban renewal.
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