Working Detroit: The Making of a Union Town

Babson's book looks at labor movement history in Detroit as a microcosm of American history as a whole. The field is one not usually covered by historians, and the nearness in time of the events allow for the use of living sources, both of which contribute to make the telling different and authentic. I liked the way that Babson connected events in Detroit with the big picture, as with the sidebar on the Debs campaign for President. The feeling that he conveys of those outdoor Socialist rallies is like that of a tent revival, a fervor generally absent from the politics on the left today. Detroit's leadership in American industrialism for most of the century now ending give the story of Labor's rise national importance, but natives will probably enjoy the book more, given it's intimate portrait of familiar places and faces from our recent past.