There was a precarious balance during those crucial months between composition and decomposition - what the world gained and what a great city lost. Even then, some part of Detroit was dying, and that is where the story begins. — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
Well, here you had a city that was selling more cars than ever before, that had this wondrous music being created, that was so vital to the labor and civil rights of this country, and yet it was dying and… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
It's hard to know exactly how people develop the characters they do. There could be people from humble beginnings that turn into jerks. Some… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
And then the industry itself was so cocky about what they were doing that they weren't seeing what was coming on the horizon with… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
You also had in Detroit that summer, an early variation of Ferguson. A black prostitute was shot in the back by police. And all… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
Originally, John Kennedy was going to come speak, and then Lyndon Johnson. Because it was October of '62, neither made it because of the… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
So, I mean, there's still vast swaths of the city that are suffering from a lack of jobs and poor housing and poor public… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
I want my books to last, to stand the test of time, and to do that I focus on the forces that shape the… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
It was a time of uncommon possibility and freedom, when Detroit created wondrous and lasting things. But life can be luminescent when it is… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
And that John F. Kennedy uttered the first variation of "ask not what your country can do for you" in Detroit on Labor Day… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
Well, there is something beautiful about ruins. I mean, in one sense it's not that different from going to Rome and looking at the… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
It was so crucial to the Civil Rights Movement that on June 23, 1963, Martin Luther King came to town, walked down Woodward Avenue… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
Well, there were several things. One was that the industry itself built in Detroit was abandoning the city - taking factories elsewhere, the corporate… — David Maraniss Copy Share Image
