Detroit's New Center (Images of America)

Rating:
Summary: Thorough and Engaging Historical Snapshot
Review: This book is more than a pictorial record. It tells a story. It nicely documents the creation and evolution of the New Center area of downtown Detroit. Its provides insight into the forces driving urban planning in the Motor City. It chronicals the city's arrival on the scene as an industrial powerhouse, through the effects of the industry's maturation on urban development, all the way up to current efforts to continue developing the area post-the maturation of its major corporate sponsors (and without a range of other sponsors of that scale filling in the gap).

Full of well researched historical photos (some, I believe, which ever never been available outside of archives). The text below the photos are more than captions explaining the photos. They actually tell the story, succintly but effectively. The photos highlight the narrative. And they are a lot of fun to look it.

If this is your scene, and your area of interest, I definitely recommend this book.