Abstract
This thesis is a narrative history of developments in politics, labor, and property in postwar metropolitan Detroit. Each component influenced one another, creating a tumultuous city-suburban relationship that exists to this day. As a battle to maintain white suburbs persisted, a class struggle emerged in the city’s factories. There is already extensive literature on the intersectionality of race and class, this body of work illuminates how racial issues in Metro Detroit prompted a militant class struggle during the 1960s. Furthermore, how whiteness itself became property in the suburbs, and thus counteracted an opportunity for change in Detroit’s factories. Historians often look at the rise of conservatism in the late sixties as a backlash to social progressivism. To the contrary, this thesis looks at the rise of leftist militancy as a reaction to neoliberalism. Neoliberalism that attached itself to property and race, particularly amongst the white working class leading to a clash with black militants in Detroit’s auto factories.
Advisor
Adams, Beatrice
Department
History
Recommended Citation
Linn, Brendan C., "Motor City Madness: Class Race And Postwar Suburbia" (2022). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 9765.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/9765
Publication Date
2022
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2022 Brendan C. Linn