To Read, and "Naked Cities," by Adam Gopnik (NYer 5 Oct 2015)

"Naked Cities" is a "Books" article by Adam Gopnik in the 5 October 2015 New Yorker magazine. In it, Gopnik discusses the past and current state of several American (and, in passing, British) cities, and mentions some books about them that might be worth reading.

I found the section of the article concerning Detroit to be of particular interest. Once In A Great City, (Simon and Schuster) by David Maraniss, is the main citation for this part. Several fascinating people are mentioned, including Smokey Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Ford II, and Walter Reuther.

On Reuther: "...he was a social democrat who worked in the Soviet Union and denounced Stalinism [who knew?]; a labor leader who survived attempts by the owners not just to intimidate but to assassinate him...He thought auto-workers needed not only higher wages but less stressful work, and proposed regular sabbaticals for them..."

 New York Times Review of Once In a Great City