From "an Arsenal Of Democracy" To "an Encumbrance Of Democracy"

The first nationwide urban crisis broke out around America during 1960s. Detroit was the typical representative. This thesis intends to ascertain the origin, performance, influence and measures of the urban crisis. Two aspects of black underclass in post-industrial Detroit are given special attention: the housing and the employment condition. The thesis is composed of three parts: introduction, text and conclusion. The introduction introduces the origins of the topic selection and source, and makes some reviews about the relative study briefly.Part 1 describes the basic situation of Detroit. It divides into two sections. Section 1 mainly traces the history of Detroit before 1900, and introduces the contention between French and English and the development of Detroit. Section 2 is about the situation of Detroit at its height and analyzes the advantages of the Detroit economical prosperity.Part 2 is the major part of this thesis, and is divided into four sections. Section 1 is about the decline of manufacture in the Detroit economy and its reason. Section 2 and Section 3 discuss the employment and the housing condition of the black underclass and focus on its reason separately. Section 4 retrospects the situation of the riot at Detroit in 1967.Part 3 talks about the Urban Renewal Movement in Detroit, such as the expressway construction, the slum clearance and the public housing projects.In the conclusion, this thesis summarizes the first urban crisis in America and educes some valuable revelations as reference.