Matt recommends "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit"

This book is thirteen years old, but remains an invaluable resource for students of metro-Detroit’s history. Thomas Sugrue traces in careful detail some of the various, complex social factors that led to the decline of Detroit and the rise of the suburbs. He pays particular attention to the devastating effects of discriminatory housing and employment practices, both official and grassroots, as well as deindustrialization and racial violence. The book is academic, but moves at a brisk pace and held my interest throughout. Readers will come away with a more nuanced understanding of a complicated, troubling time in recent history whose effects continue to shape our lives.