NONFICTION:
The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits, by Tiya Miles
A thorough account of the slave origins of the city of Detroit, a major northern city.
Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution, by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin
The story of black auto workers fighting back against oppression and exploitation on the production floors in the 60s and 70s.
Michigan Beer: A Heady History, by Patti F. Smith
A look into Michigan’s brewing past and its recent triumphs.
Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-Era Detroit, by Tom Stanton
The story of the Black Legion terrorist group that operated throughout the midwest, including Detroit, in the mid-1930s. A story of history, crime, and sports.
This Is Detroit, 1701-2001: An Illustrated History (Great Lakes Books Series), by Arthur M. Woodford
Using photographs and illustrations, Woodford connects Detroit’s extensive history with the present (up to 2001).
Freer: A Legacy of Art by Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill
Features 184 works of art on display at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. including James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room installation, which was once located in the Charles Lang Freer house in Detroit.
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, by Thomas J. Sugrue
A close look into the reasons behind Detroit’s racialized poverty after World War II.
The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook, Edited by Aaron Foley (Bailey Sisoy-Moore, tour guide at Detroit History Tours contributed to this book.)
Individual essays highlighting the stories of some of Detroit’s many neighborhoods.
Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis, by Mark Binelli
Binelli explores what possibilities Detroit offers after hitting “rock bottom” and how its reinvention can be the greatest example of reimagining a postindustrial city in the new century.
Detroit: A Biography, by Scott Martelle
This book takes a look at the evolution of Detroit-what it once was and what it has become.
Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit, by Michael H. Hodges
A deep dive into the life and career of Albert Kahn, focusing on his contributions to architecture and industry primarily in Detroit.
Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture, by Michael G. Smith (Michael is a tour guide with Detroit History Tours. He leads our Architecture tours)
A deep dive into the life and career of architect Wirt Rowland, focusing primarily on his achievements and contributions to architecture in the city of Detroit.
The Buildings of Detroit: A History, by W. Hawkins Ferry
A resource on the buildings and architecture of Detroit and its surrounding communities featuring interviews with architects and many photographs.
The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War, by A. J. Baime
A dramatic narrative of how Ford Motor Company switched gears from making automobiles to airplanes to assist in World War II.
Rosie, A Detroit Herstory, by Bailey Sisoy Isgro (now Bailey Sisoy Moore, Detroit History Tours Executive Directory and tour guide)
The story of women workers during World War II, with a focus on Detroit, for young readers.
Where Today Meets Tomorrow: Eero Saarinen and the General Motors Technical Center, by Susan Skarsgard
The story behind the early days of General Motors, the design and development of the GM Technical Center by Eliel Saarinen and his son, Eero Saarinen, and the acclaim the campus received upon its opening.
Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit, by Dan Austin
Stories and memories of forgotten Detroit landmarks, offering a glimpse into some of the most stunning buildings in the city.
Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies: Lafayette Park, Detroit, edited by Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar, Natasha Chandani
This book tells the story of Lafayette Park, a community of buildings designed by Ludvig Mies van der Rohe. It is one of the most racially integrated and economically stable neighborhoods in Detroit, and this book examines how it came to be this way and how the residents interact with the city around them.
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, by Grace Lee Boggs
Activist and Detrioter Grace Lee Boggs assesses the crises the world faces now and outlines how to create the new social change needed to confront new realities.
Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back, by Nathan Bomey
The story of how Detroit came to the point of bankruptcy and the inside story of the fight to save Detroit in the years that followed.
Mapping Detroit: Land, Community, and Shaping a City, edited by June Manning Thomas and Henco Bekkering
A collection of maps show how Detroit moved from a frontier fort to a bustling industrial metropolis to today’s city of high vacancy and explores what the future may hold.
Detroit: The Dream Is Now, by Michel Arnaud
A visual essay on the resurgence and rebuilding of the city of Detroit through photographs.
Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City, by Heather Ann Thompson
This book brings the labor movement into the context of literature in the 1960s radicalism and integrates the history of the 1960s in Detroit into the broader political history of the postwar world.
A Detroit Anthology, edited by Anna Clark
A collection of Detroit stories told by Detroiters old and new.
Detroit: An American Autopsy, by Charlie LeDuff
The story of a town that went through a rough time but remained filled with some of the strongest people in the country. LeDuff explores the reasons behind Detroit’s downfall.
Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Mayor Coleman Young, by Coleman A. Young
Detroit’s first African-American Mayor, Coleman A. Young, recounts his life.
Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit, by Suzanne E. Smith
This book tells the story of Motown and of its relationship to the culture and politics of Detroit.
Hidden History of Detroit, by Amy Elliott Bragg
Lesser known stories of Detroit’s history prior to the automobile industry.
Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination, by Herb Boyd
Detroiter Herb Boyd explores Detroit’s past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and importance to the nation as a whole.
Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line, by Ben Hamper
A gritty and truthful journey through the belly of the American industrial beast.
Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story, by David Maraniss
A story about the downfall of Detroit told from the years of its prosperity, and how signs of the downfall could always be seen in the city’s design.
Frontier Seaport: Detroit's Transformation into an Atlantic Entrepôt (American Beginnings, 1500-1900), by Catherine Cangany
The history of Detroit as a seaport, fur-rich frontier, and importance in American trade routes.
The Voyage of Detroit, by Thomas Fleming Day
In 1912 Thomas Fleming Day took a 35-foot double-ended powerboat from New York to St. Petersburg, Russia. This book recounts his journey and is a good read for anyone interested in maritime history.
Damsels in Design: Women Pioneers in the Automotive Industry, 1939-1959, by Constance Smith
The untold story of the women who excelled in design in a men-dominated era of automobile and industrial design.
Detroit Then and Now, by Cheri Y. Gay
A compelling visual comparison between historic images of Detroit landmarks and modern photos of the same scenes today.
Greetings from Detroit: Historic Postcards of the Motor City, by Dan Austin
A glimpse into Detroit’s past through a collection of more than two hundred historic postcards from the early 1900s to the 1950s.
Finding Detroit: Faces and Places in the Motor City, by Emmanuelle Perryman (Emmanuelle is a guide at Detroit History Tours)
A celebratory book about the people and the places of the city of Detroit, told through photographs and interviews.
The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough:An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship, by William Sanders Scarborough, edited by Michele Valerie Ronnick
An autobiography of the life and times of William Sanders Scarborough as he fought to make a place for African Americans in higher education.
A History of Detroit’s Palmer Park, by Gregory Piazza
The story of the building and development of Palmer Park.
My Forty Years with Ford, by Charles E. Sorensen
Sorensen recounts his four decades working as a manager and eventual officer (VP or Director) for Ford Motor Company.
Putting the World Together: My Father Walter Reuther, The Liberal Warrior, by Elisabeth Reuther Dickmeyer
The inside story of one of the century’s most controversial labor leaders, as told by his daughter.
How Detroit Became an Automotive Capital, by Robert G. Szudarek
This book highlights how Detroit became the automotive capital of the U.S. and includes more than 500 photographs.
Detroit Goes to War: The American Auto Industry in World War II, by V. Dennis Wrynn
The story of the Detroit automobile industry’s role in World War II.
The Ford Century: Ford Motor Company and the Innovations that Shaped the World, by Russ Banham
A highly visual look into the history of an iconic American company that has been an integral part of Detroit and the nation as a whole.
Working Detroit, by Steve Babson
Through words and pictures, Working Detroit explores the events in the city's ongoing struggle to build an industrial society.
Detroit Dream Cars, by John Heilig
This book explores the engineering and designs behind the most influential automobile concepts to come out of Detroit from the end of World War II to the present.
The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy, by Charles K. Hyde
An exhaustive study into the life and accomplishments of the Dodge Brothers.
The Violent Years: Prohibition and the Detroit Mobs, by Paul R. Kavieff
The story of Detroit during the violent era of prohibition.
The Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle
The story on perhaps the most important case of housing discrimination. Ossian Sweet, a black man who moved his family into a white neighborhood in Detroit, shot a member of a violent mob outside his house. The book details the ensuing trial, where Sweet was defended by legendary attorney Clarence Darrow, and the broader fight against housing segregation.
Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback, by George Plimpton
The compelling story of how author and reporter George Plimpton talked his way into the Detroit Lions football training camp as a player to take photos behind center in at least one preseason game. He tells of how he practiced with the team and the stories he uncovered along the way.
Detroit Hustle: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Home, by Amy Haimerl
One journalist's account of her relocation from Brooklyn to Detroit. After purchasing a historic home in Detroit with the intent to restore it, author Amy Haimerl discovered so much more than just old wood and screws. She found a community and a love for the city she now calls home.
Wicked Detroit, by Mickey Lyons
This fun and unique book highlights the lesser known stories of Detroit’s colorful characters that helped shape it into the city that it is today.
A History Lover’s Guide to Detroit, by Karin Risko
An intimate tour of the innovative, social, and cultural history of the city of Detroit.
Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo in Detroit, by Mark Rosenthal
A catalogue of essays examining everything involving Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo during their time in Detroit.
Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies edited by Joel Stone
A series of essays surrounding the events of the racially charged civil disturbances in the summer of 1967. The essays draw from facts, memories, and analysis to explore the causes and outcomes of the events that summer.
Boneyards: Detroit Under Ground, by Richard Bak
Boneyards explores how Metro Detroiters inter and memorialize their dead and explains how the treatment of the dead can reveal much about an area's culture. Investigations of cemeteries and explorations into the ‘business’ of the dead make this a fascinating read.
Summer Dreams: The Story of Bob-Lo Island, by Patrick Livingston
Summer Dreams explores the memories and history of Bob-Lo Island and discusses its importance to the people of Detroit.
Detroit’s Delectable Past: Two Centuries of Frog Legs, Pigeon Pie and Drugstore Whiskey, by Bill Loomis
A look into what defined ‘eating’ throughout history for Detroiters. This book also explores historic foodways.
Diary of a Motor City Hit Man: The Chester Wheeler Campbell Story, by Christian Cipollini
This book tells the story of Chester Wheeler Campbell and his world of murder for hire and organized crime in Detroit during the 1970s
A Hanging in Detroit: Stephen Gifford Simmons and the Last Execution under Michigan Law, by David G. Chardavoyne
The story behind the final execution under Michigan law that occurred in Detroit in 1830.
The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, by Paul R. Kavieff
The story of notorious prohibition era Detroit gang, The Purple Gang, and organized crime in Detroit.
Sin City North: Sex, Drugs, and Citizenship in the Detroit-Windsor Borderland, by Holly M. Karibo
This book explores the history of the border area between Windsor and Detroit, and how the socio economics of the tme shaped the social, legal, and national boundaries that exist now.
Built in Detroit: A Story of the UAW, A Company, and a Gangster, by Bob Morris
A compelling look into the UAW labor leaders of the 1930s and 1940s and the gangsters early auto industrialists hired to stop them.
Lost Car Companies of Detroit, by Alan Naldrett
A look into Detroit’s failed car companies of the past including their impact on the future of the automobile industry.
The Detroit Riot of 1967, by Hubert G. Locke
The Detroit Riot of 1967 explores the questions in contemporary America regarding problems in the police system and suggestions on how to redefine urban law enforcement through the lens of the events that occurred in the summer of 1967.
Art in Detroit Public Places, by Dennis Alan Nawrocki
A guide to all of the public art installations throughout the city of Detroit.
First Lady of Detroit: The Story of Marie-Therese Guyon, Madame Cadillac, by Karen Elizabeth Bush
The story of the spirited Marie-Therese Guyton and her journey to join her husband Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in Detroit shortly after Fort Pontchartrian was established.
Detroit in World War II, by Gregory D. Sumner
A narrative describing wartime sacrifices, contributions, and what life was like on the home front for Detroiters during World War II.
Revolution Detroit: Strategies for Urban Reinvention, by John Gallagher
Revolution Detroit focuses on four key areas to explore urban reinvention: governance, education and crime, economic models, and the repurposing of vacant urban land.
Secret Detroit: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, by Karen Dybis
The weird and quirky lesser known stories of the City of Detroit.
The Witch of Delray: Rose Veres & Detroit's Infamous 1930s Murder Mystery, by Karen Dybis
An incredible true crime story taking place in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit in the 1930s.
Better Made in Michigan: The Salty Story of Detroit’s Best Chip, by Karen Dybis
The history of how the famous beloved potato chip company in Detroit came to be.
The Ford-Wyoming Drive-In: Cars, Candy & Canoodling in the Motor City, by Karen Dybis
The story behind one motor city drive-in theater and how it survived through all of the decades of Detroit’s tumultuous past.
Turkey Stearnes and The Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit, 1919-1933, by Richard Bak.
An excellent history of Negro League baseball in Detroit, and a great introduction to the unique history of Negro League Baseball.
Dying for a Drink: How a Prohibition Preacher Got Away with Murder, by Patrick Brode.
A look at Windsor during Prohibition through the lens of the controversial life of “The Fighting Parson” Reverend J.O.L. Spracklin.
Prohibition’s Proving Grounds: Cops, Cars, & Rumrunners in the Toledo-Detroit-Windsor Corridor, by Joseph Boggs
A dive into the beginnings of Prohibition in Detroit, Toledo and Windsor and how those three cities created a unique corridor of vice, corruption and criminality unrivaled elsewhere.
Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia, by James A. Buccellato
Buccellato delves into the earliest origins of Sicilian organized crime in Detroit and is a wonderful addition to the history of organized crime in the city.
Murder in Hamtramck: Historic Crimes of Passion & Cold Blooded Killings, by Greg Kowalski.
A series of vignettes of murder cases through the decades in Hamtramck.
Prohibition in Hamtramck: Gangsters, Gunfights, & Getaways, by Greg Kowalski
A good overview of Hamtramck during Prohibition.
They Drank to That: Bars, Beer and the Beat of Hamtramck, by Greg Kowalski
A lite hearted overview of Hamtramck bars and watering holes in all their diversity, squalor and splendidness.
Wicked Hamtramck: Lust, Liquor and Lead By Greg Kowalski
A succinct examination of historic crime in Hamtramck.
In the Line of Duty: A Tribute to Fallen Law Enforcement Officers from the State of Michigan, by Isiah McKinnon
Compiled and written by a former chief of the Detroit Police Department this is a relatively comprehensive examination of the who, what, when and where of Michigan’s Law Enforcement Officers who died while performing their duties.
Vinnitta: The Birth of the Detroit Mafia by Daniel Waugh
A highly detailed and comprehensive account of Detroit’s Mafia.
Gangs and Outlaws of Western Pennsylvania by Thomas White and Michael Hassett.
An interesting, if occasionally flawed, history of Western Pennsylvania’s most vicious early 20th Century criminals.
MAGAZINES:
Michigan History Magazine. Visit Hsmichigan.org for a subscription.
The Chronicle by the Historical Society of Michigan. Visit hsmichigan.org for a subscription.
FICTION / NOVELS WITH DETROIT TIES:
The Purples, by W.K. Berger
In this novel, historical detail is intertwined with fiction as the story of the notorious Purple Gang is told from the perspective of its illusive leader, Joe Bernstein. The novel tells the story of Detroit’s organized crime world in a time of prohibition.
City Primeval by Elmore Leonard
From the great novelist who spent most of his formative years in Detroit. Considered by many to be Leonard’s best, City Primeval is a classic noir murder story that takes place in Detroit and told by a master of the craft.
The Detroit Electric Scheme: A Mystery by D.E. Johnson
The Detroit Electric Scheme is a fast paced murder mystery full of interesting characters, both real and fiction, from Detroit in the 1900s. Characters such as The Dodge Brothers and Edsel Ford come together in this novel to share a story involving murder, blackmail, crime, and more in the early years of the motor city.
Expensive People by Joyce Carol Oates
Book two of Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet series, Expensive People tells the story of Richard Everett, a young protagonist who examines his childhood living in one of America’s affluent suburbs during the 1960s.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
An instant classic when it was published in 2002, Middlesex tells the story of Calliope Stephanides, an intersex man who has a personal awakening. The novel also chronicles three generations of a Greek-American family who emigrated to Detroit and then lived in the metro area.
Wrestling with the Muse by Melba Joyce Boyd
Part-memoir, part-biography, Wrestling tells the story of Dudley Randall, owner of Broadside Press, an important publishing house that brought many black writers to prominence.
Dopefiend by Donald Goines
An unflinching novel about Detroit’s underground drug world. Part-autobiographical, it’s often considered Goines’s best work.
Where to Purchase the Books on this List
As always, Amazon is a great resource for purchasing most of the books on this list. However, we strongly believe in shopping local, and supporting the great independent bookstores of Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park.
Source Booksellers
4240 Cass Ave., #105, Detroit, MI 48201
Phone: (313) 832-1155 Web: sourcebooksellers.com
Hours: M-F 11am-5pm, Saturday & Sunday 12pm-4pm
John K. King Used and Rare Books
901 W. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: (313) 961-0622 Web: johnkingbooksdetroit.com
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 9:30am-5:30pm
Pages Bookshop
19560 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, MI 48223
Phone: (313) 473-7342 Web: pagesbkshop.com
Hours: Monday-Saturday 11am-5pm
Underground Railroad Reading Station
461 Monroe St. (in Greektown) Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: (313) 961-0325 Web: ugrrbookstore.com
Hours: Tuesday 5am-11pm, Wednesday 11am-7pm, Thurs & Fri 5am -11pm, Saturday & Sunday 5am-3pm
This shop also provides tours about Detroit’s role in the underground railroad. See website for details.
Wayne State University Press
The Leonard N. Simons Building
4809 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201
Phone (toll free order line): (800) 978-7323
Web: wsupress.wayne.edu
Office Hours: M-F 8:30am-5:00pm
The nation's oldest university press Wayne State Press sells directly to customers via their website with free shipping in the continental United States.