While the history of most American cities is rather commonplace, there are a few which furnish a story of facts more fascinating than any romance. In the development of a new country the civilization, which in time leavens the great mass of barbarism, works from a few central points. In North America Boston became the nucleus of the New England colony, although it was not the first settlement. Jamestown was the first settlement of the Virginia colony, but the town never attained great importance. New York and Philadelphia became important towns, but for the first century of their existence their influence extended over but a small area. Detroit, from the date of its founding, nearly 200 years ago, became the metropolis of the region of the great lakes and the guardian of the straits. For a period of 125 years Detroit was both the rallying point and the emporium of the West. Three nations struggled and shed their blood for its possession.

A comparative study of urban form and the reuse of buildings in modern Detroit and Rome (Italy). This exhibition catalog includes 3 U scholarly essays and 25 catalog entries describing the Usage history of buildings in Detroit & Rome.

More than 650 landmarks are covered, ranging from ancient monuments such as Stonehenge, to contemporary engineering feats such as the World Trade Center in New York City. The concisely-written entries describe when the landmark was built, who built it, why it was built, its dimensions, how it was constructed, and any problems encountered during construction. Additional features include: numerous photographs; biographies of important builders and designers; glossary; chronology of dates in civil engineering from 3000 BC to the present; listings of tallest buildings, longest bridges, and highest dams, and a geographical index which locates the structures by country.

Brewed in Detroit describes the history of the brewing industry in the Detroit metropolitan area from its beginning in the 1830s to the present revival by microbrewers and brewpubs.

When America faced its greatest internal crisis, Michigan answered the call with over ninety thousand troops. The story of that sacrifice is preserved in the state's rich collection of Civil War monuments, markers, forts, cemeteries, reenactments, museums and exhibits. Discover how General George A. Custer and the famed Michigan Cavalry Brigade "saved the Union." Visit the chair that President Lincoln was assassinated in at Ford's Theatre, and view the grave of the last African American Union veteran. With a foreword by Civil War historian Jack Dempsey, this work is the first of its kind to chronicle the many Civil War landmarks in the Wolverine State.

This innovative collection builds bridges between multiple areas of social activism as well as current scholarship in geography, anthropology, history, and urban studies to inspire communities in Detroit and other cities towards transformative change.

Around the world, tourists are drawn to visit murals painted on walls. Whether heritage asset, legacy leftover, or contested art space, the mural is more than a simple tourist attraction or accidental aspect of tourism material culture. They express something about the politics, heritage and identity of the locations being visited, whether a medieval fresco in an Italian church, or modern political art found in Belfast or Tehran. This interdisciplinary and highly international book explores tourism around murals that are either evolving or have transitioned as instruments of politics, heritage and identity. It explores the diverse messaging of these murals: their production, interpretation, marketing and – in some cases – destruction. It argues that the mural is more than a simple tourist attraction or accidental aspect of tourism material culture. Murals and Tourism will be valuable reading for those interested in cultural geography, tourism, heritage studies and the visual arts.

Tracing two centuries of rise, fall, and rebirth in the heart of downtown Detroit. Downtown Detroit is in the midst of an astonishing rebirth. Its sidewalks have become a dreamland for an aspiring creative class, filled with shoppers, office workers, and restaurant-goers. Cranes dot the skyline, replacing the wrecking balls seen there only a few years ago. But venture a few blocks in any direction and this liveliness gives way to urban blight, a nightmare cityscape of crumbling concrete, barbed wire, and debris. In Dream City, urban designer Conrad Kickert examines the paradoxes of Detroit's landscape of extremes, arguing that the current reinvention of downtown is the expression of two centuries of Detroiters' conflicting hopes and dreams. Kickert demonstrates the materialization of these dreams with a series of detailed original morphological maps that trace downtown's rise, fall, and rebirth. Kickert writes that downtown Detroit has always been different from other neighborhoods; it grew faster than other parts of the city, and it declined differently, forced to reinvent itself again and again. Downtown has been in constant battle with its own offspring—the automobile and the suburbs the automobile enabled—and modernized itself though parking attrition and land consolidation. Dream City is populated by a varied cast of downtown power players, from a 1920s parking lot baron to the pizza tycoon family and mortgage billionaire who control downtown's fate today. Even the most renowned planners and designers have consistently yielded to those with power, land, and finances to shape downtown. Kickert thus finds rhyme and rhythm in downtown's contemporary cacophony. Kickert argues that Detroit's case is extreme but not unique; many other American cities have seen a similar decline—and many others may see a similar revitalization.