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Kevin Williamson

What Doomed Detroit (Encounter Broadsides) Paperback – November 26, 2013

by Kevin D. Williamson (Author)

53 ratings

3.8 on Goodreads

55 ratings

Part of: Encounter Broadsides (66 books)

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Many cities have struggled with the decline of key industries, from Philadelphia’s shipyards to New York’s textile industry, but Detroit—which is now in bankruptcy—is both a victim of the decline of the Michigan automobile industry and a cause of it. A city with a history of civil disorder—it is the only American city occupied on three separate occasions by federal troops—its poisonous blend of race-based politics and union domination has left it impoverished and diminished. Once the fourth-largest city in the country, it is today smaller than Fort Worth. Once the nation’s most prosperous city, it is today the poorest. Even in its reduced state, it is the largest U.S. city ever to file for bankruptcy—and yet its city payroll maintains twice as many government employees per resident as does San Jose. More terrifying is the fact that the imbalance between public-sector consumption and private-sector production that helped make Detroit what it is today is by no means limited to the Motor City—in fact, there are four large U.S. cities that are in arguably worse shape. Detroit is not just a case study, but a portent.

Print length

40 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Encounter Books
Publication date

November 26, 2013
Dimensions

4.75 x 0.25 x 7 inches
ISBN-10

1594037469
ISBN-13

978-1594037467
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kevin D. Williamson is an editor at National Review, the author of the forthcoming The End of Politics (And What Comes Next), and a columnist for The New Criterion. He began his journalism career at the Bombay-based Indian Express Newspaper Group and has worked as a reporter, columnist, and editor at a variety of newspapers. He directed the journalism program at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Encounter Books (November 26, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 40 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594037469
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594037467
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.98 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.75 x 0.25 x 7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,634,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,515 in Economic Policy
- #1,825 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
- #2,953 in Economic Conditions (Books)

Customer Reviews:
53 ratings

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5

53 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		16%
3 star		10%
2 star		1%
1 star		17%

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David J.

Short book but well filled with information

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book will help you understand how failed liberal policies destroyed a once mighty American city. Good intentions sometimes have bad endings.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Interesting info.,must research factual basis. Misspelled words, redundant phrases throughout the text. Actually out of date, based on current state of Detroit

Helpful

M. Heiss

Great broadside - 34 pages - read it while the plane taxis out.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is an exciting book that shows Detroit's decline was not the inevitable outcome of the fall of American auto manufacturing.

Kevin D. Williamson offers these causes:
- poor governance
- union domination
- riots
- the parasite outgrowing the host.

Yes, parasite. In Detroit, "public sector employment has become in effect a supplementary welfare state... entirely disconnected from legitimate municipal purposes." The government in Detroit is its own special interest group. We can't all work for government - someone has to pay the taxes.

Williamson also points out the depressing reality that the citizens of Detroit have decalared it is more important that their city be governed by blacks than governed competently, by any race. (p. 23-24)

Detroit is a harbinger.

Also read: Detroit City is the Place To Be Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael Buratovich

Williamson does it again

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

With facts and figures, Kevin Williamson delivers a decisive diagnosis of what ails the city of Detroit and how it went from breadbasket to basket case in one generation. Williamson does it all with the scintillating prose we have come to expect from his trenchant but interesting pen.

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lingvistika

This is the real story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

Detroit was not destroyed by "economic change" or by "social forces". It was destroyed by people making destructive decisions.

You can go into only so much detail in a short book (more like a long article), but to the extent it can, this book gives an accurate picture. It shows how racial politics were given precedence over everything, including fiscal prudence. Generally speaking, the book is more accurate than ideological, and you don't get the finger-wagging, "It serves you right, Detroit, and I hope you stay that way!" that you get in a lot of accounts of Detroit's destruction. Williamson is even-handed, but unfortunately, in this case, being fair means being very critical of certain individuals and groups.

A good follow-up book is "Who Killed Detroit?" by Johannes Spreen, a former Detroit chief of police.

21 people found this helpful

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David

Racist Rant

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

What doomed Detroit is not because of the color of the inhabitants but the politics of the government.

The author refuses to acknowledge this by citing without details, examples of mostly all white liberal (blue) cities that are doing very well. He neglects to mention that these vibrant liberal cities have slashed bureaucratic regulations and corporate taxes as incentives to spur growth; this is the cornerstone of conservatism and regardless of race, when tried, economies boom! Comparing Detroit with Africa and Haiti is academically dishonest.

Following in the leftist ideology that black America is a victim rather than a race that can take care of themselves, Detroiters, have been allowed to expect money because of their victim hood. Until black America realizes that even after trillions of dollars after four decades of fighting The War on Poverty, they are actually victims of a faulty paradigm.

It's not the color of a person or their gender, but the desire to work hard and look after your family and neighbors that makes for success.

Ignoring the details, this author paints black America as stupid, racist (some are) and lazy. It's because the black majority that Detroit is a dead city. Might as well start putting up flaming crosses at eight mile and telegraph roads with warnings... "Whighty Go Back and Live"!

All the wrong conclusions!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Boni Fine

and largesse with other people's money--the progressive playbook--inevitably produced a city that looks like it was hit by a tor

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

Written in the aftermath of Detroit's declaration of bankruptcy, Williams details a half-century of racial poison, demagoguery, and largesse with other people's money--the progressive playbook--inevitably produced a city that looks like it was hit by a tornado, with miles of derelict homes, wrecked factories, and hopeless citizens. A cautionary tale of the first order by a smart and gifted writer.

Helpful

taichiguy

Kevin Williamson is always interesting.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

He seems to research very well, then when he writes the editorial text, his incisive wit takes over. If you like sharp and funny together, you will appreciate his writing.

2 people found this helpful

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