--- description: Reviewing David Maraniss’ new book Once in a Great City title: Review: ‘Once in a Great City’ by David Maraniss image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # When Detroit First Started to Stall by [Michael Duffy](/author/michael-duffy/) ## Michael Duffy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 10, 2015 10:15 AM CUT by [Michael Duffy](/author/michael-duffy/) ## Michael Duffy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 10, 2015 10:15 AM CUT The experts at Detroit’s Wayne State University saw the white exodus coming first. In February 1963 they predicted that Detroit’s population, then 1.6 million, would fall by a quarter in just seven years. The Detroit Free Press buried the story inside. And why not? In early ’63, Detroit was booming, churning out 7 million cars a year. Ford’s blockbuster Mustang was taking shape in Dearborn, Mich. Motown was tuning up for a decade of hits. What could slow Detroit down? The answer, revealed in David Maraniss’s elegantly written Once in a Great City, is a mix of good intentions, overconfidence and what the author calls “the American dilemma of race.” Maraniss carefully confines his story to an 18-month period between October 1962 and May 1964 when giants like Walter Reuther, Henry Ford II, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Berry Gordy all gather onstage, backed by a colorful collection of local mobsters, saloon keepers and pro football players. Fifty years later, Motor City’s fall is summed up by a diagram in the front of the book, reminding readers where to find Detroit on a map. –MICHAEL DUFFY ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4028997/when-detroit-first-started-to-stall/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4028997/when-detroit-first-started-to-stall/"},"headline":"When Detroit First Started to Stall","datePublished":"2015-09-10T10:15:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:43:29.033Z","description":"Reviewing David Maraniss’ new book Once in a Great City","url":"https://time.com/4028997/when-detroit-first-started-to-stall/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Duffy","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michael-duffy/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4028997/when-detroit-first-started-to-stall/","name":"When Detroit First Started to Stall"}}]}] ```