Description
Book SynopsisIn the late 1910s, Henry Ford relocated his industry to a Detroit suburb called Dearborn. Due to the high wages he paid, this became the first place in the nation where the modern "American dream" was realized: it was here that the ordinary person could own a house and a car.
Trade ReviewHeather Barrow's book is thoroughly researched, insightful, and accessible.... [It] makes an excellent read not only in historical geography seminars, but also in courses on urban form and race/ethnicity studies.
* Journal of Historical Geography *
Barrow] skillfully weaves together the historical, economic, and geographic literature with archival sources, including workers' oral histories.... Barrow's book will be of use to historians and economists, both students and professionals, interested in the history of Ford, Detroit, and Dearborn, and the interplay of economics and geography in that history.
* Journal of Economic History *
Barrow's insightful research brilliantly reevaluates the objectives of welfare capitalism and the origins of suburbanization. This timely and erudite volume is essential reading for understanding the metropolitization of Detroit.
* The Michigan Historical Review *
This is an engaging book that is a welcome contribution to the literature. Scholars of history and urban studies will greatly appreciate because it reveals a more complex historiography of the process of suburbanization.
* Housing Studies *
This is an important and insightful book. Not only does Barrow provide a new perspective on Henry Ford and his role in urban planning, she sets the process of suburbanization within the context of race, class, and public transportation, suggesting the cost of the American dream for some was a divided metropolis and in the case of greater Detroit, a hollowed-out core.
* Middle West Review *
