The Detroit Model

As Detroit reached dizzying new heights of industrial success and urban growth at the turn of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of migrants flocked to the Motor City. In response, organizations such as the YMCA launched wide-reaching Americanization programs to instill patriotism, conservative gender roles, traditional family values, and industry-favorable labor relations in the city’s immigrant communities. As the “Ford Man” became a model for masculinity and the housewife for femininity, supporters of these programs believed Detroit could become a model for the nation. In this impressively researched book, Nicole Greer Golda reveals how the Detroit Model became embedded in American culture and forged the ideal of proper American citizenship.

Delving into Immigration Bureau files, migrant letters, and unexplored Ford Motor Company records, Greer Golda examines debates over family order, sexual relationships, race and labor relations, immigration policy, and the status of women. She illustrates how businessmen, government officials, white women, native-born workers, immigrants, and Black Detroiters challenged each other for the power to define the contours of the new American city. Ultimately, the Americanization programs prevailed and their conservative values became the backbone of Cold War sensibilities that enabled the Cold War consensus to gain popularity. As The Detroit Model contends, the backlash to shifting demographics in Detroit shaped American life for decades to come.