The Fifty-Year Rebellion - (American Studies Now: Critical Histories of the Present) by Scott Tadao Kurashige (Paperback)

About the Book

"On July 23, 1967, the eyes of the nation fixed on Detroit as thousands took to the streets to vent their frustrations with white racism, police brutality, and vanishing job prospects in the place that gave rise to the American Dream. For mainstream observers, the "riot" brought about the ruin of a once-great city, and then in 2013, the city's municipal bankruptcy served as a bailout that paved the way for Detroit to finally be rebuilt. Challenging this prevailing view, Scott Kurashige portrays the past half-century as a long "rebellion" the underlying tensions of which continue to haunt the city and the U.S. nation-state. Michigan's scandal-ridden emergency-management regime represents the most concerted effort to quell this rebellion by disenfranchising the majority black citizenry and neutralizing the power of unions. The corporate architects of Detroit's restructuring have championed the creation of a "business-friendly" city where billionaire developers are subsidized to privatize and gentrify downtown while working-class residents are squeezed out by rampant housing evictions, school closures, water shutoffs, toxic pollution, and militarized policing. From the grassroots, however, Detroit has emerged as an international model for survival, resistance, and solidarity through the creation of urban farms, freedom schools, and self-governing communities. A quintessential American story of tragedy and hope, The Fifty-Year Rebellion forces us to look in the mirror and ask, Are we succumbing to authoritarian plutocracy, or can we create a new society rooted in social justice and participatory democracy?"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

On July 23, 1967, the eyes of the world fixed on Detroit, as thousands took to the streets to vent their frustrations with white racism, police brutality, and vanishing job prospects in the place that gave rise to the American Dream. Mainstream observers contended that the "riot" brought about the ruin of a once-great city; for them, the municipal bankruptcy of 2013 served as a bailout paving the way for the rebuilding of Detroit. Challenging this prevailing view, Scott Kurashige portrays the past half century as a long rebellion whose underlying tensions continue to haunt the city and the U.S. nation-state. He sees Michigan's scandal-ridden "emergency management" regime, set up to handle the bankruptcy, as the most concerted effort to put it down by disenfranchising the majority black citizenry and neutralizing the power of unions.

Are we succumbing to authoritarian plutocracy or can we create a new society rooted in social justice and participatory democracy? The corporate architects of Detroit's restructuring have championed the creation of a "business-friendly" city, where billionaire developers are subsidized to privatize and gentrify Downtown, while working-class residents are being squeezed out by rampant housing evictions, school closures, water shutoffs, toxic pollution, and militarized policing. Grassroots organizers, however, have transformed Detroit into an international model for survival, resistance, and solidarity through the creation of urban farms, freedom schools, and self-governing communities. This epochal struggle illuminates the possible futures for our increasingly unstable and polarized nation.

From the Back Cover

"Scott Kurashige's wonderful, important book teaches us to read neoliberal crisis and austerity from below, as a reaction to forces of liberation that came before and continue today."--Michael Hardt, coauthor of Assembly

"I believe Scott Kurashige's work will introduce a new generation of scholars, activists, intellectuals, artists, and citizens to what many of us have said for a while--the story of the 20th and 21st centuries is the story of Detroit."--Lester K. Spence, Associate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and author of Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics

Review Quotes

"Kurashige sees in Detroit a microcosm of the political ills which he believes afflict the United States more broadly. Starting with the rioting of 1967, he presents a history of the policies that he believes have disen- franchised, impoverished and repressed Detroit's black and working-class citizens, as well as their acts of resistance."-- "Survival: Global Politics and Strategy" (7/18/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"Kurashige's purpose is advocacy as much as exposition, but he presents compelling details on what led up to, and what followed, Detroit's bankruptcy, including the forms of state administration that were imposed on the city, a story barely covered by the national press."-- "Survival: Global Politics and Strategy" (1/29/2019 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Scott Kurashige is Professor of American and Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington Bothell and coauthor with Grace Lee Boggs of The Next American Revolution.