Demolition Means Progress : Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis /

Using the case study of Flint, Michigan, from the mid-20th century to the present, this ambitious effort to rethink US urban history is a strong work that will be of considerable value to students and scholars of US urban history, urban studies, and urban planning, as well as general readers interested in urban life in the US. Like previous authors, historian Highsmith (Univ. of California, Irvine) documents the important roles of racial segregation, class and income inequality, political fragmentation, deindustrialization, and suburbanization in the decline of Flint, but he also presents a new typology of segregation as it has played out in Flint, moving beyond the concepts of de facto and de jure segregation to those of legal, administrative, and popular segregation, which he argues have greater explanatory power. Also insightful are the ongoing efforts by city residents and leaders to improve and revitalize the city in the face of the strong forces noted above, which have negatively impacted the city over the past half century. A useful epilogue brings readers up to date with relevant developments in Flint since the turn of the 21st century. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. --Mark E. Pfeifer, State University of New York Institute of Technology