Review by Choice Review
Patterned after Gilbert Osofsky's Harlem, the Making of A Ghetto (CH, Oct'66), older African American histories focused on the process of ghettoization. Joining newer works, e.g., Joe William Trotter's Black Milwaukee (CH, Jul'85), Thomas's book emphasizes the process of community building, led by the emerging African American industrial working class and domestic servants. In the period between the world wars, schools, hospitals, newspapers, self-help organizations, and a sense of place developed in black Detroit. The Detroit Urban League, the NAACP, The Booker T. Washington Trade Association, and the Housewives League of Detroit all played integral roles in this process. Progress was not without its problems, however; crime, poverty, and despair remained constants. Frequently, skilled African American workers were denied jobs, even in critical defense industries. During this period, African Americans demonstrated their newfound strength by challenging the racist system, first by breaking with the Republican party, and then by turning from the paternalistic support of Henry Ford and joing the UAW. Taken with earlier works like Thomas Philpott's The Slum and the Ghetto (CH, Sep'78) Thomas's ground-breaking study should occupy a central place in the literature of American urban history. Advanced undergraduates; graduate; faculty. D. R. Jamieson; Ashland University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
