Michigan: A History of Explorers. Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People (review)

Book Reviews 131 These voices and the decisions they made, not those of workers and community members, predominate in the book. One cannot read this book and remain unimpressed by the complexity and enormity of the project undertaken. Huge numbers of decisions had to be made under the pressures of war, and consequently Willow Run tells us much about how America mobilized. The federal government used its capacity, more than naked authority, to guide production. It generally protected the interests of private industry and used existing social and economic structures rather than inventing new. This gave private enterprise, unions, and local governments some opportunities to lay claims for their own visions, but none got all that they wanted and none remained unchanged by the process. The creation of the Willow Run plant, for example, forced counties, townships, and cities that initially wanted to turn migrants away to create or dramatically expand their building codes, zoning ordinances, health regulations, and public schools. The usefulness of this book for those interested in Michigan’s industrial and urban history is obvious. Perhaps less obvious, but a still a strength of Peterson’s work, is how it advances an understanding of mid-century urban planning in the US. Rather than grand schemes created by experts, planning was an intriguingly imperfect system by which many interested groups could bring their ideas to table and workable trade-offs could be hammered out. It was, Peterson argues, a process that ultimately worked and was a credit to the democracy that created it. Georgina Hickey University of Michigan-Dearborn Roger L. Rosentreter. Michigan: A History of Explorers. Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014. Pp. 436. Index. Maps. Notes. Photographs. Paper: $29.95 In this volume, Roger Rosentreter gives readers the benefit of his over 30 years living with Michigan’s history—as editor of Michigan History magazine, author of several publications, and professor of history at Michigan State University. Michigan, A History of Explorers, Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People is a valuable contribution, underscoring the important point that the history of a state is not by definition provincial; it can also inform our understanding of the history of the 132 The Michigan Historical Review nation. The book lives up to its title. Nineteen chapters cover the entire span of time from the early Native Americans to Detroit’s bankruptcy. Nearly half of this book—chapters 12 through 19—are devoted to the twentieth century, and a postscript carries the story to 2013. Subheadings make helpful content guides and alert the reader to unexpected information, such as “Women, Farmers, and POWS” in the World War II chapter and “Young, Griffiths, and Hart” in the chapter on the 1970s and Beyond. In every era, Rosentreter examines how Michigan’s location on the Great Lakes and wealth of natural resources enabled the fortunes of a few entrepreneurs and the livelihood of so many “everyday people.” Skillful analysis connects economic, social, political, and cultural developments.to those at the national and even international level. Each chapter is crafted by research from wide-ranging primary and secondary sources, and carefully-selected quotations and extensive endnotes provide welcome documentation to guide further research into specific topics, people, and events. The numerous photos and maps are helpful. Rosentreter obviously spent a great deal of time sifting through many names, dates, and facts, searching for the most significant or most illustrative. Though he has avoided their excessive use, as that can be mind-numbing, every page includes details that lend precision and depth: for example, a look at the D.M. Ferry & Company, one of the world’s largest seed houses by the 1880s, which employed 800 workers and shipped 50 million packages of seed (and tens of thousands of catalogues) to 80,000 merchants. Similarly, quotations and numerous short phrases provide weight to generalizations: after Ford dropped the original price of his car from $825 to $360 by 1916, the industrialist claimed that every dollar reduced from the selling price gained him 1,000 new customers, or when Romney, commenting on his small American Motors Rambler, asked “Who wants to have a gas-guzzling dinosaur in his garage?” (p. 330). Alongside...