FEBRUARY 2016 - AudioFile
David Maraniss, a Detroit native, calls this audiobook an "urban biography" of his hometown. He thoroughly examines a key period: 1962-64. As narrator, his voice is steady, helping to build the big picture as he reveals that period in Detroit's life as a microcosm of the city's history—and the nation's. The stories of Motown legends like Aretha Franklin and Berry Gordy are interwoven with Ford ad campaigns, a historic Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, and an Olympics bid, which failed. Some stories—such as the one about John F. Kennedy's visit with a Hungarian refugee and another about the aftermath of a police shooting—reflect on today's headlines across the nation. Maraniss’s book provides historical background and context for the current story of Detroit's rebirth. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Gay Talese
Once in a Great City is incandescent. Through evocative writing and prodigious research, David Maraniss offers us an unforgettable portrait of 1963 Detroit, muscular and musical, during the early days of Motown and the Mustang. Bursting with larger than life figures from Henry Ford II, Walter Reuther, and Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, to Berry Gordy, Martin Luther King, and Reverend C.L. Franklin, Aretha's father, this book is at once the chronicle of a city during its last fine time and also a classic American story of promise and loss.
Library Journal
04/15/2015
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author (e.g., First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton), Detroit-born Maraniss argues that the city didn't fall because of riots or rust-belt issues. In 1963, it boasted leading lights from Henry Ford II to Motown founder Berry Gordy; Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech there first. Yet in this final golden moment the world stood ready to pass Detroit by.
FEBRUARY 2016 - AudioFile
David Maraniss, a Detroit native, calls this audiobook an "urban biography" of his hometown. He thoroughly examines a key period: 1962-64. As narrator, his voice is steady, helping to build the big picture as he reveals that period in Detroit's life as a microcosm of the city's history—and the nation's. The stories of Motown legends like Aretha Franklin and Berry Gordy are interwoven with Ford ad campaigns, a historic Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, and an Olympics bid, which failed. Some stories—such as the one about John F. Kennedy's visit with a Hungarian refugee and another about the aftermath of a police shooting—reflect on today's headlines across the nation. Maraniss’s book provides historical background and context for the current story of Detroit's rebirth. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine