In Detroitland: A Collection of Movers, Shakers, Lost Souls, and History Makers from Detroit\u2019s Past prolific local historian and journalist Richard Bak has assembled many of his award-winning historical features, all originally written for such periodicals as Hour Detroit, Detroit Monthly, and Michigan History and now updated and expanded for this collection. In twenty-seven chapters that cover roughly a century of Detroit\u2019s rich and colorful history, Bak relives the scandals, mysteries, catastrophes, triumphs, and celebrations that have rocked Detroit. He also introduces readers to the heroes, criminals, stars, and regular people who lived through them, or in some cases, set them in motion.<\/p>\n
Detroitland contains the stories behind familiar names like Frank Murphy, the infamous Purple Gang, the Lone Ranger, \u201cPotato Patch\u201d Pingree, and Charles Lindbergh. Yet Bak also reveals lesser-known episodes in Detroit\u2019s history, like the ambitious International Exposition & Fair of 1889; the killer heat wave of 1936, with five straight days of hundred-degree temperatures; and the attempted around-the-world flight of Ed Schlee and Billy Brock in the Pride of Detroit in 1927. He introduces readers to little-known and unique Detroit characters, like the fierce Black Legion gang that was Detroit\u2019s own version of the Ku Klux Klan; Johnny Miler, the man who walloped Joe Louis in the Brown Bomber\u2019s first-ever amateur fight; patrolman Ben Turpin, the terror of Black Bottom criminals; Sophie Lyons, legendary \u201cQueen of the Underworld\u201d and Detroit philanthropist; and Shorty Long, Brenda Holloway, the Velvelettes, and other forgotten Motown artists of the \u201960s.<\/p>\n
Told in Bak\u2019s conversational and eminently readable style, the historical essays in Detroitland will prove hard to put down for anyone interested in Detroit\u2019s history or those looking for an informative and entertaining read.<\/p>\n
No one writes Detroit like Richard Bak. For decades, he has probed the back alleys of Detroit history to uncover tales long forgotten. In Detroitland, he shares some of his best.<\/p>\n
“As you fly through these tales of the beautiful, the grotesque, scoundrels, heroes, old friends, and stone-cold killers, you\u2019ll \u2018hear\u2019 the engaging, made-in-Detroit voice of a master storyteller.”<\/p>\n
\u2014Ric Bohy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Detroitland: A Collection of Movers, Shakers, Lost Souls, and History Makers from Detroit\u2019s Past prolific local historian and journalist Richard Bak has assembled many of his award-winning historical features, all originally written for such periodicals as Hour Detroit, Detroit Monthly, and Michigan History and now updated and expanded for this collection. In twenty-seven chapters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[171],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-11625","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-history-biographies-memoires","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/11625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=11625"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=11625"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=11625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}