Introduction

The goal of this blog will be to discuss Detroit from the perspective of someone who is not an expert but who has some background in historical research and an interest in where the city has been and where it's going. I do not claim to be an endless source of flawless Detroit knowledge, but I do know some things and am always in the process of learning. At the very least, I hope to refute the idea that Detroit is a "dead city" by bringing attention to its complex past and the endless number of people who are working to ensure that its current slump is simply a low-point in the city's life cycle. Even though I am not all that familiar with William Faulkner, I will quote him anyways: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." Detroit's past is not dead - it will continue to teach us about how we have gotten to this exact point in our history and how we should be trying to shape the future.