A People’s History of Detroit and Detroit, I Do Mind Dying

reading and discussion for 4 weeks with the Capital Studies Group of the Marxist Education Project

These two books will be the focus:  A People’s History of Detroit by Mark Jay and Philip Conklin with Detroit, I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin.

In A People’s History of Detroit, Mark Jay and Philip Conklin use a class framework to tell a sweeping story of Detroit from 1913 to the present, embedding Motown’s history in a global economic context. Attending to the struggle between corporate elites and radical working-class organizations, Jay and Conklin outline the complex sociopolitical dynamics underlying major events in Detroit’s past, from the rise of Fordism and the formation of labor unions, to deindustrialization and the city’s recent bankruptcy.

Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as they became two of the landmark political organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely heralded as one the most important books on the black liberation movement.

“Equal parts an urban history of a single city and a sweeping theory of capitalism. . . . Through a detailed exposition of one city’s past, A People’s History of Detroit imagines what a people’s future could look like in Detroit—and in other cities.” — David Helps,  Public Books

THE CAPITAL STUDIES GROUP is comprised of a group of instructors, students, activists, and others who often engage with close readings of books and other texts that address issues central to the development of understanding how the class struggle between capital and labor has played out and is especially interested in the development of deep historical understandings of the development of capitalism globally, nationally, regionally, and also in areas local to participants. Currently, the Capital Studies Group convenes on Saturdays 11 am to 1 pm each week in discussion of Marx’s Grundrisse.

A discounted A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF DETROIT is available from DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
dukeupress.edu
320 PAGES / 17 ILLUSTRATIONS
order the book with this discount code: E20HSTRY

DETROIT: I DO MIND DYING is available from Haymarket Books (and they ship quickly) https://www.haymarketbooks.org/

All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to the Marxist Education Project. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Send an email to info@marxedproject.org to obtain an entry url to any event or class presented by the Marxist Education Project.