Report: The damning mask of false prosperities’: The deindustrialization of Detroit

                

                  Thomas J. Sugrue is currently a professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His specialty is 20^th century American history. He graduated from Columbia University Summa Cum Laude with a degree in history. He then went on to get his B.A. in British History from King’s college, located in Cambridge, England. Later he received his P.H.D. in history from Harvard University. He started teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and has also been a visiting professor at schools such as Harvard and New York University. He is both a distinguished author and public speaker, giving speeches all around the country.

                The reading, “The damning mask of false prosperities’: The deindustrialization of Detroit”, was the fifth chapter in Sugrue’s first book, The Origins of Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. In the book he writes about poverty and racial inequality in urban cities, with a focus on Detroit, Michigan. The book seems to be written for more of a professional crowd, but is very accessible for the average reader. Critically, the book was an overwhelming success. It was given the Bancroft prize in 1998, 1996 Social Science History Association President's Book Award, the 1996 Philip Taft Prize in Labor History, and the 1997 Urban History Association Prize for Best Book in North American Labor History. It was also named to Princeton’s list of 100 the most influential books of the preceding century. According to Labor History this was, "A splendid book that does no less than transform our understanding of United States history after 1940."

                In the reading Sugrue gave a thorough description of how the auto industry, and manufacturing in general, steeply declined in Detroit. There were several factors that all combined to form a perfect storm to displace auto workers in the 1950’s. One of the first things he mentions is that the federal government put a disproportionate amount of its resources in the south and in suburbs. Then he describes how the larger auto industries used the strategy of “decentralization” to cut costs. By opening plants in cities across the country they were able to cut labor costs and lessen the influence of the powerful workers union. Because Detroit’s economy was so reliant on the “Big Three” in the auto industry, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, when these plants relocated some of their jobs it had a huge impact. Another major factor was that Ford and General Motors started relying more on automation in their factories. This led to even more Detroit workers being laid off and left unable to find a new job. According to Sugrue, “Before the introduction of automated engine production at Ford’s Cleveland plant, it took 117 workers to produce 154 engine blocks per hour; after automation the same output required a mere 41 workers.” Finally, he describes how blacks were disproportionately affected by the layoffs, citing that, in 1960 15.9 percent of blacks were out of work, while only 5.8 percent of whites were out of work. Similarly, 19.7 percent of black auto workers were unemployed, and 5.8 percent of white auto workers were unemployed.