The payoffs are many in Felicia B. George's deeply researched social history, which manages to be both engrossing and illuminating—placing Detroit's often maligned numbers community within the rich context it so rightly deserves. Even as the child of a numbers runner, I learned more than I ever knew and gained a better understanding of what I thought I knew. Honestly, I couldn't put this fascinating book down.
~Bridgett M. Davis
Filled with fascinating detail—champion boxer Joe Louis's career was initially funded by numbers gambling profits—George's narrative is accessible and entertaining. Readers will be engrossed.
~Publisher's Weekly
When Detroit Played the Numbers is the best researched and most comprehensive case study of one city's numbers games. Full of fascinating details about gamblers and game operators, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in gambling, the history of Detroit, African American culture, or the story of the American Dream.
~Jonathan D. Cohen
Professor George tells the lively story of those archetypal minority entrepreneurs who used the gambling industry to build their role as community influentials and make a place for themselves in an economy structured by racial inequality. Charting the rise and fall of the black numbers business in Detroit, from its early roots into the late twentieth century, her book sheds light on the interconnections between the city's underground economy, politics, community building, and race.
~John J. Bukowczyk
Although it is seemingly a book about a guessing game that people played with small change, this book is in fact a complex and fascinating history that will be of great value to scholars of race, migration, capitalism, American leisure, and crime. Most importantly, it is a book that allows readers to better understand the city of Detroit.
~Matthew Vaz
Interivew with author Felicia George on WDET's Created Equal https://wdet.org/2024/03/11/new-book-explores-gamblings-impact-on-detroits-black-community/
~Stephen Henderson
